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THE  PRESENCE  OP  PATRICK  BRANWELL  BRONtS  IN  WUTHERING  HEIGHTS 


by 


CAROLYN  MARIE  MORGAN 
B.  S.  ,  Spring  Hill  College,  1962 


,    A  MASTER'S  REPORT 
submitted  in  partial  fulfillment  of  the 
requirements  for  the  degree 


MASTER  OF  ARTS 


Department  of  English 


KANSAS  STATE  UNIVERSITY 
Manhattan,  Kansas 


1966 


Approved  by: 


Major  Professor 


to 

/?/ 


THE  PRESENCE  OP  PATRICK  BRANWELL  BRONtS  IN  WUTHERIKG  HEIGHTS 

Charlotte  and  Branwell  Bronte,  unlike  their  sister 

Emily,  made  devoted  friends  and  kept  up  a  wide  correspondence. 

'  The  little  we  know  about  Emily  Bronte  is  drawn  from  the 

impressions  of  others,  not  revelations  she  made  personally. 

Therefore,  any  study  of  Emily  Bronte  necessitates  delving 

into  the  writings  of  her  relations  and  their  friends. 

Such  evidence  is  not  always  trustworthy.     For  example, 

Francis  Henry  Grundy,  a  friend  of  Branwell' s,  wrote  in 

his  Pictures  of  the  Past  that  the  Bronte  sisters  were 

"distant  and  distrait,  large  of  nose,  small  of  figure, 

1 

red  of  hair,  prominent  of  spectacles."      We  know  that 
parts  of  this  description  are  false  because  none  of  those  more 
intimately  connected  with  the  Brontls  concur  with  it; 
only  Charlotte  and  Branwell  wore  spectacles  and  Branwell 
alone  had  red  hair.     Proceeding,  then,  with  care  I  have 
attempted  in  this  paper  to  show  to  what  extent  Branwell 
Bronte  is  present  in  his  sister  Emily's  sole  novel, 
Wuthering  Heights .     I  believe  it  is  advisable,  at  least 
by  way  of  introduction,  to  establish  what  Branwell  and 
Emily's  relationship  was  like. 

However,  before  establishing  the  nature  of  Emily's 


-2- 


relationship  to  Branwell,  one  might  do  well  to  explode  a 

few  of  the  legends  which  surround  them.     These  legends 

seem  to  have  been  encouraged  by  A.  Mary  P.  Robinson's 

biography  of  Emily,  which  was  published  in  I883.  In 

writing  this  biography  Miss  Robinson,  according  to  C. 

K.  Shorter,  "had  access  to  no  material  other  than  that 

2 

contained  in  printed  volumes."      Besides  the  fact  that  she 

did  not  deal  with  any  new  material,  her  biography  ofk 

Emily  has  at  least  two  other  weaknesses: 

In  the  first  place  she  sometimes  em- 
broiders a  doubtful  tale,  already  told 
by  somebody  else,  with  matter  of  her 
own  invention,  the  purpose  of  such  em- 
broidery being,  apparently,  to  keep  her 
narrative  on  a  high  level  of  pathos  .... 
In  the  second  place  she  occasionally  makes 
large  assumptions  and  treats  them  as 
established  facts,  without  warning  her 
readers  that  she  has  strayed  into  the 
realm  of  pure  conjecture. 3 

Thus  we  can  see  that  in  using  Miss  Robinson's  biography 

for  scholarly  work  some  restraint  is  necessary. 

One  of  the  tales  encouraged  by  Miss  Robinson 

recounts  Emily's  heroic  efforts  in  saving  Branwell 's 

life  from  a  fire  which  he  started  accidentally  while 

reading  in  bed  and  then  falling  into  a  drunken  stupor. 

He  must  have  "upset  the  light  on  to  the  sheets,  for  they 

k 

and  the  bed  were  all  on  fire."      I  believe  that  G.  F. 
Bradby  in  his  The  Brontes  and  Other  Essays  successfully 
discredits  this  legend.     He  points  out  the  fact  that 
Branwell,  "as  he  grew  worse  and  wilder,"     slept  with  his 
father.    Rev.  BrontS,  incidentally,  had  a  deep-seated 


•        -3-  : 

fear  of  fire,  and  the  interior  of  the  parsonage,  according 
to  Ellen  Nussey,  Charlotte's  life-iong  friend,  "lacked 
drapery  of  all  kinds.    Mr.  Bronte's  horror  of  fire  forbade 
curtains  to  the  windows.    There  was  not  much  carpet  any- 
where except  in  the  sittingroom  and  on  the  study  floor. 
The  hall  floor  and  stairs  were  sand stoned."  Bradby 
wonders  how  Rev.  Bronte,  a  nervous  man,  could  sleep  through 
all  the  hysterics,  noise,  and  smoke  being  produced  right 
outside  his  door.     It  also  seems  strange  that  Branwell, 
who  was  in  the  center  of  the  blaze,  was  not  burned. 

The  second  legend,  also  perpetrated  by  Miss 
Robinson,  is  the  attribution  of  Emily's  death  to  the  crushing 
blow  of  Branwell' s  own  death.     I  see  at  least  three  separate 
viewpoints  one  can  hold  in  dealing  with  Emily's  death. 
The  known  facts  are  that  Emily  caught  a  cold  at  Branwell 's 
funeral,  refused  all  medical  attention,  and  continued  to 
perform  her  daily  tasks  until  the  very  day  of  her  death. 
She  joined  Branwell  under  the  stones  of  Haworth  church  only 
eighty-six  days  after  his  own  demise.     Charlotte,  in  her 
letters,  gives  a  blow  by  blow  account  of  Emily's  illness. 
On  September  30,  lQl\.Q,  we  would  have  found  Emily  in  church, 
.listening  to  Branwell 's  funeral  sermon.    A  week  or  two 
later,  Charlotte  wrote;     "Emily  has  a  cold  and  cough  at 
present  ....  Emily's  cold  and  cough  are  very  obstinate. 
I  fear  she  has  pain  in  her  chest,  and  I  sometimes  catch 

a  shortness  in  her  breathing  when  she  has  moved  at  all 
7 

quickly."      By  November,  Emily  had  "not  rallied  yet.  She 


is  very  ill  ....  I  think  Bnily  seems  the  nearest  thing 
to  my  heart  in  all  the  world."    In  December,  Charlotte 
wrote  sadly  that: 

Ebiily  suffers  no  more  from  pain  or  weak- 
ness now  .  .  .  there  is  no  mily  in  time, 
or  on  earth  now  .  .   .   .  ¥e  are  very  calm 
at  present.    VJhy  should  v/e  be  otherwise? 
The  anguish  of  seeing  her  suffer  is  gone 
by:    the  funeral  cay  is  past.    We  feel 
she  is  at  peace.     No  need  to  tremble  for 
the  hard  frost  and  the  keen  wind.  Emily 
does  not  feel  them.     She  died  in  a  time 
of  promise  ....  But  it  is  God's  will, 
and  the  place  where  she  has  gone  is  better 
than  that  which  she  has  left.o 

One  can  look  at  the  facts  objectively  and  believe  that,-  ... 
Emily  died  of  "galloping  consumption,"  whatever  that  is, 
and  refused  medical  aid  because  she  was  either  too  courageous 
. pr  too  stubborn. 

Interpreted  roman>ically,  one  would  have  to  start 
from  the  premise  that  Branwell  and  Eoiily  were  kindred  spirits, 
that  when  he  died  she  had  no  raison  d'etre,  and  promptly 
withered  away.     Miss  Robinson,  it  must  be  noted,  helped  to 
establish  this  vievTpoint,  a  viev.'point  upon  which  other 
legends  have,  in  wurn,  been  built.     Her  theorizing  on 
the  tender  relationship  v;hich  supposedly  existed  between 
Efliily  and  Branwell  laid  the  foundation  for  this  viev;point. 
After  Branwell  died  unreclaimed  and  unrepentent,  Snily, 
"she  who  so  mourned  her  brother,"  decided  to  follow  him 

quickly  to  the  grave  because  "The  motive  of  her  life  seemed 
9 

gone."      This  is  pure  conjecture  on  the  part  of  Miss 
Robinson,  because  the  only  recorded  comments  of  Emily's 
on  Branwell 's  condition  do  not  reveal  such  sentiments. 


Bradby  feels  that  Miss  Robinson  was  led  to  such  conjectures 

because  she  "was  convinced  that  her  heroine's  refusal  to 

be  nursed  must  have  had  its  roots  in  some  gentler  feeling 

than  an  obstinate  pride  in  self.     Miss  Robinson  found  the 

10 

cause  in  a  broken  heart." 

Viewed  psychologically,  Qnily  caught  a  "psychosomatic 
chill"  and  not  only  allowed  herself  to  die,  but  actually 
had  a  very  strong  death  wish.    The  sensitive  Emily,  viewed 
from  this  angle,  was  emotionally  unprepared  for  the  un- 
favorable reviews  received  by  Wuthering  Heights;  she  was 
depressed  and. her  fellow  failure  Branwell  died,  making 
her  realize  how  impossible  the  struggle  was.     The  famous 
review  which  Charlotte  read  to  the  dying  Emily  from  The 
North  American  Review  seems  to  give  us  the  impression 
that  all  the  reviews  were  unfavorable.    We  remember  Ellis 

Bell  being  characterized  as  the  "man  of  uncommon  talents, 

11 

but  dogged,  brutal  and  morose."        Actually  Snily  must 
have  read  the  English  reviews  which  appeared  sometime  be- 
fore any  review  in  an  American  paper  and  these  were  not 
totally  discouraging. 

In  the  rosewood  desk  which  was  Emily's,  and  upon 
which  she  probably  wrote  most  of  Wuthering  Heights,  five 
reviews,  totalling  fifteen  thousand  words,  were  found. 
Four  of  these  reviews  were  from  The  Atlas,  The  Examiner, 
Douglas  Jerrold's  V/eekly  Newspaper  and  Britannia  (there  is 
no  name  on  the  fourth  cutting,  but  it  has  been  identified). 
The  fifth  cannot  be  traced.     These  reviews  do  contain  some 
favorable  passages. 


-6- 


The  review  in  Douglas  Jerrold's  Weekly  Newspaper 
reads  as  follows: 

,  ,  ,  we  strongly  recommend  all  our  readers  who 
love  novelty  to  get  this  story,  for  we  can 
; .  promise  that  they  never  had  read  anything 

like  it  before.     It  is  very  puzzling  and  very 
■  interesting,  and  if  we  had  space  we  would 

.  .     '  .  willingly  devote  a  little  more  time  to  the 
analysis  of  this  remarkable  story,  but  we 
must  leave  it  to  our  readers  to  decide  what 
sort  of  book  it  is.-^^ 

The  review  from  an  unknown  source  states  that: 

•  It  is  not  every  day  that  so  good  a  novel 

makes  its  appearance  and  to  give  its  con- 
tents in  detail  would  be  depriving  many 
a  reader  of  half  the  delight  he  would  ex- 
perience from  the  perusal  of  the  work  itself. 
To  its  pages  we  must  refer  him  then.  There 
he  will  have  ample  opportunity  of  sympathising-- 
if  he  has  one  touch  of  nature  that  'makes 
•  the  whole  world  kin' — with  the  feelings  of 
childhood,  youth,  manhood,  and  age,  and  all 
the  emotions  and  passions  which  agitate  the 
restless  bosom  of  humanity.     May  he  derive 
■   from  it  the  delight  we  have  ourselves  ex- 
perienced, and  be  equally  grateful  to  its 
author  for  the  genuine  pleasure  he  has 
afforded  him. ^3 

The  Britannia  critic  feels  that: 

He  {Ellis  Bel^  displays  considerable  power 
in  his  creations.     They  have  all  the  angularity 
of  misshapen  growth,  and  form  in  this  respect 
a  striking  contrast  to  those  regular  forms 
we  are  accustomed  to  meet  with  in  English 
fiction.     They  are  so  new,  so  wildly  grotesque, 
so  entirely  without  art  that  they  strike 
us  as  proceeding  from  a  mind  of  limited  ex- 
perience, but  of  original  energy  and  of  a 
singular  and  distinctive  cast,^'^- 

Dnly  The  Atlas  review  is  decidedly  unflattering.    While  these 

reviews  do  not  rapturously  extoll  the  virtues  of  Ellis  Bell 

and  Wuthering  Heights ,  some  phrases  or  passages  would 


please  a  new  author,  one  who  had  just  published  bis ofirst 


-7-  ■  .  ^  .  , 

work.     I  personally  doubt  that  Qnily  Jane  thought  herself 
judged  an  artistic  failure. 

Though  the  reason  for  Emily's  firm  decision  not 
to  seek  medical  help  can  be  blamed  on  pride,  or  on  a  be- 
lief that  Nature  would  heal  her,  or  on  a  belief  that  she 
was  immutable,  or  on  some  type  of  mania,  there  seems  to 
be  no  doubt  that  in  the  very  last  hours  before  her  death 
she  clung  tenaciously  to  life.     She  finally  called  for  a 
doctor.    It  was,  however,  too  late.    Throughout  the  rest 
of  her  life,  Charlotte  herself  returned  over  and  over 
again  to  the  day  on  which  Emily  died.    She  says: 

.1  cannot  forget  Emily's  death-day;  it  be- 
•     comes  a  more  fixed,  a  darker,  a  more  fre- 
quently recurring  idea  in  my  mind  than  ever. 
It  was  very  terrible.     She  was  torn,  con- 
■  scious,  panting,  reluctant,  though  re- 

solute out  of  a  happy  life.  15 

Although  Charlotte  has  rhetorically  heightened  the  dramatic 

effect  of  her  last  sentence,  the  central  idea  remains: 

Emily  died  unwillingly,  she  did  not  long  for  death. 

Not  only  is  Emily's  corpse  laid  at  the  feet  of 

Branwell,  but  Emily,  in  turn,  is  held  responsible,  by  some, 

for  the  death  of  Anne]     In  The  Three  Bront'^s  we  read  that 

"As  Qnily  died  of  Branwell 's  death,  so  Emily's  death  hastened 
16 

Anne's."        Phyllis  Bentley  in  The  Bront8  Sisters  states, 

in  speaking  of  the  deaths  of  Emily  and  Anne,  that: 

.   .   .  when  all  that  has  been  said,  one 
cannot  but  feel  that  these  two  deaths  within 
six  months,  of  young  vjomen  thirty  and  twenty- 
nine  ( i^. e_. ,  past  the  most  dangerous  tubercular 
.:         age),  must  have  had  some  striking  psychological 
cause.     Anne  and  Emily  x^re^e  inseparable  friends 
in  life;  it  was  not  altogether  surprising 
that  the  milder  and  weaker  and  younger  girl. 


who  had  always  been  delicate,  should 
make  haste  to  follow  the  stronger  of  the 
pair  to  the  grave. ^7 

It  seems  that  some  critics  believe  that  the  Brontes'  love 

for  each  other  was  of  a  particularly  deadly  nature.  I 

see  no  reason  for  Miss  Bentley  to  state  that  the  deaths  of 

Emily  and  Anne  "must  have  had  some  striking  psychological 
18 

cause."        Charlotte,  in  her  letters,  mentions  that  Anne 
had  a  cough  and  was  ailing  while  Emily,  unknown  to  them, 
was  slowly  dying.    Anne,  who  lacked  Emily's  pride  and 
metaphysic,  willingly  sought  help  from  doctors.     She  Journeyed 
to  Scarborough,  hoping  that  the  sea  air  would  revive  her 
wasted  body.    All  this  to  no  avail:    Anne  lies  buried  in 
Scarborough,  the  only  Bronte  not  interred  at  Haworth. 
It  is  not  apparent  that  Anne  "made  haste"  to  follow  Emily 
in  death. 

Closely  related  to  these  legends  is  the  work  of 

some  scholars,  such  as  Edith  Kinsley  and  Norma  Crandall. 

Delving  into  Qnily's  poetry  these  scholars,  who  evidently 

do  not  believe  that  poets  can  imagine,  can  wite  of  things 

never  experienced,  find  the  record  of  an  incestuous 

relationship  between  Branwell  and  Emily.    I  am  afraid  that 

these  critics  have  been  driven  to  such  an  extreme  and,  I 

believe,  untenable  position  by  the  very  dearth  of  material 

on  Emily.    Such  stanzas  of  Qnily's  verse  as  the  following 

are  quoted  in  building  their  argument: 

Thy  raving,  dying  victim  see,  " 
Lost,  cursed,  degraded,  all  for  theel 
Gaze  on  the  wretch,  recall  to  mind 
His  golden  days  left  long  behind. 


-9- 


And 

There,  lingering  in  the  wild  embrace 
Youth's  warm  affections  gave. 
She  sits  and  fondly  seems, to  trace 
His  features  in  the  wave,^^ 

One  cannot  accept  the  thesis  that  Branwell  and  Emily  were 

lovers,  without  forgetting  that  they  spent  a  great  deal 

of  their  lives  in  imaginary  lands  where  love  was  an  often 

felt  emotion;  an  emotion  which  is  quite  easy  to  imagine.  On 

this  point,  Bradby  states  that:  • 

.  .  .  Emily  was  a  poet,  and  poets  can  feel 
passionately  about  imagined  experiences, 
as  well  as  about  their  contacts  with  real 
life.     If  they  did  not,  Tennyson  (to  take 
one  instance  only)  could  never  have  written 
Maud.    There  is  passion  and  romance  in  Maud, 
yet  in  his  actual  relations  with  women, 
Tennyson  was  never  either  passionate  or 
romantic. 

If  a  critic  still  feels  that  he  must  go  on  and 

correlate  Emily's  personal  life  with  her  poetry,  he  will 

find  several  problems  awaiting  him.     One  of  these  problems 

comes  into  being  upon  comparing  the  biographical  material 

surviving  from  Emily's  own  hand  to  the  poems  written  during 

the  same  time  period.     One  of  these  scraps  of  biographical 

material  is  the  birthday  letter  of  July  30,  l8L|.l,  addressed 

to  Anne.     Einily  and  Anne  had  the  pleasant  custom  of  exchanging 

letters  on  their  birthdays;  these  letters  were  to  be  opened 

on  their  birthdays  three  or  four  years  later.    Muriel  Spark 

believes  that  the  letter  of  I8I4.I  is  characterized  by  a 

21 

"buoyancy  of  spirit"      and  I  agree  wholeheartedly  with  her. 
Miss  Spark  goes  on  to  note  the  lack  of  similarity  between  the 
hopeful,  even  cheerful  letter,  and  the  "tragic  mood  of  her 


recent  poems--wlth  their  stress  on  themes  of  death,  remorse, 

revenge,  imprisonment — Emily  was  not  hiding  her  true 

state  of  mind  in  the  letter  from  Anne,  because  Anne  would 

see  both  the  letter  and  the  poems.     Miss  Spark's  conclusion 

is  that  Emily's  poems  were  "more  objectively  conceived 

22 

than  they  appear  to  be." 

If  a  critic  is  willing  to  restrict  his  interpretation 

of  the  poems  to  those  which  are  strictly  personal  he  must 

then  distinguish  them  from  the  Gondal  poems.     This  is  not 

easily  done.     In  a  short  article,  "The  Gondal  Story," 

which  appears  in  The  Complete  Poems  of  Emily  Jane  Bront^, 

edited  by  Hatfield,  the  prestigious  Bront^  scholar  Fannie 

Ratchford  states  that  most  and  "perhaps  all"  of  Buily 

Bronte's  poems  pertain  to  Gondal  and  that  "approximately 

one-half  of  the  one  hundred  and  ninety-three  poems  and 

fragments  printed  by  Mr.  Hatfield,  including  the  longer 

and  more  important  pieces,  take  their  places  in  the 

Gondal  pattern."     Miss  Ratchford  feels  that  "Thus  Snily 

Bronte's  own  voice  turns  into  nonsense  the  hundreds  of  pages 

of  Bront^  biography  based  on  the  subjective  interpretation 
23 

of  her  poems."        Because  of  the  arguments  stated  in  the 
preceding  paragraphs  I  must  reject  the  use  of  Emily's  poems 
in  establishing  her  feelings  for  Branwell.     Instead  I 
now  turn  to  an  analysis  of  Emily's  character  and  life. 

It  has  been  noted  that  if  any  one  trait  marked 
all  the  Bront*^  children  it  was  shyness.     In  1833  the 
Brontes  met  with  Ellen  Nussey  and  her  companions  at  the 


•J  f 


-11- 


Devonshire  Arms  Hotel  at  Bolton  Bridge.     During  the  journey 
to  their  destination  the  Brontes  were  in  high  spirits, 
however,  as  . 

...  .   .  the  dog-cart  rattles  noisily  into  the 
open  space  in  front  of  the  Devonshire  Arms, 
and  the  BrontSs  see  the  carriage  and  its 
occupants  .   .   .  there  is  silence;  Branwell 
contrasts  his  humble  equipage  with  that  which 
...  stands  at  the  inn  door,  and  a  flush  of 
mortified  pride  colours  his  face;  the  sisters 
scarcely  note  this  contrast,  but  to  their 
dismay  they  see  that  their  friend  is  not  alone 
....  The  laughter  is  stilled;  even  Branwell 's 
volubility  is  at  an  end;  the  glad  light  dies 
from  their  eyes,  and  when  they  alight  and 
submit  to  the  process  of  being  introduced 
to  Miss  N's  companions,  their  faces  are  as 
dull  and  as  commonplace  as  their  dresses 
....  Miss  N_  still  recalls  that  painful 
moment  when  the  merry  talk  and  laughter 
of  her  friends  were  quenched  at  the  sight 
of  the  company  awaiting  them,  and  when 
throughout  a  day  to  which  all  had  looked  forward 
.  with  anticipations  of  delight,  the  three 

Brontes  clung  to  each  other  or  to  their  friend, 
•  scarcely  venturing  to  speak  above  a  whisper, 
.     ■         and  betraying  in  every  look  and  word  the 
positive  agony  which  filled  their  hearts^, 
when  a  stranger  approached  them  .   .   .  .  ^ 

Grundy  characterizes  the  Brontl  girls  with  their  "eyes 

constantly  cast  down,  very  silent,  painfully  retiring," 

and  speaks  of  Branwell 's  "downcast  look  which  never  varied, 

26 

save  for  a  rapid  momentary  glance  at  long  intervals." 

27 

The  "crushing  Bronte  timidity"      predominated  in 

28 

Emily  and  finally  grew  to  "an  almost  impenetrable  aloofness." 
As  an  adolescent,  Ellen  Nussey  thought  that  Bnily  had 
"very  beautiful  eyes,  kind,  kindling  liquid  eyes  .   .   .  she 
did  not  often  look  at  you.     She  was  too  reserved."  Only 

29 

on  the  moors  was  Emily's  "reserve  replaced  by  naive  delight," 
Apparently  Bnily  never  outgrew  this  shyness  completely 
because  when  she  was  twenty-four  M.  Heger  wrote  to  her 


-12- 

father  that:    "Miss  Emily  was  learning  the  piano,  receiving 

lessons  from  the  best  professor  in  Belgium,  and  she  herself 

had  little  little  pupils.     She  was  losing  whatever  remained 

30 

of  ignorance,  and  also  of  what  was  worse — timidity." 

This  statement,  incidentally,  contrasts  starkly  with  the 

one  M.  Heg^  made  about  Buily  fifteen  years  later.  The 

now  famous  passage  begins  with  "She  should  have  been  a  man — 

31 

a  great  navigator  ..."        The  once  timid  young  woman 

after  having  attained  literary  success  had  become,  in 

retrospect,  a  "great  navigator,"  a  strong  masculine  spirit. 

Phyllis  Bentley  has  noted  the  number  of  times  the 

word  lone  or  one  of  its  derivatives  appears  in  key  positions 

in  the  poems  of  Rnily  Bronte.    While  I  believe  that  Emily 

felt  herself  to  be  alone,  I  do  not  believe  that  her  fagade 

of  shyness  and  timidity  hid  a  strong  desire  to  be  with  other 

people  and  communicate  with  them.     According  to  Ellen 

Nussey,  Emily  had  "a  strength  of  self -containment  seen 

32 

in  no  other  .  .  .  and  talked  very  little."        Muriel  Spark 

states  that  Emily  "had  no  apparent  desire  for  any  company 

33 

outside  her  family."        Bradby  says  that  Emily  "did  not 
care  for  people.     She  had  no  curiosity  to  enter  into  and 
explore  their  minds;  and  her  o\m  she  instinctively  bolted 
and  barred  in  their  presence.     She  was  more  alone  in 
company  than  in  solitude  which  she  could  people  with 
her  fancies."  '  <  - 

If  we  accept  this  delineation  of  Enily  Bront4*  we 
realize  that  she  did  not  find  strangers  appealing  and. 


-13- 

therefore,  did  not  go  out  of  her  way  to  make  herself  appealing, 

It  is  not  surprising  then  that  "most  of  those  of  her  own 

social  standing  who  came  in  contact  with  her  found  her  most 

difficult  to  get  on  with."        In  192i|,  Sir  Clifford  Allbutt 

wrote:     "It  was  not  Charlotte  who  was  'gey  ill  to  live  with' 

but  Emily.     No  human  being  .  .  .  could  get  along  with 
36 

Eknily  Bront^'."       Because  Emily's  extreme  shyness  often 

bordered  on  rudeness,  Charlotte's  anxious  question  to  a 

visitor  who  had  just  returned  from  a  walk  with  Emily  was, 

37 

"How  did  Emily  behave?"  1 

'  In  the  biographical  notice  to  the  second  edition  of 
Wuthering  Heights,  Charlotte  says  of  Emily: 

...  she  had  no  worldly  wisdom;  her  powers 
were  unadapted  to  the  practical  business  of 
life:     she  would  fail  to  defend  her  most 
manifest  rights,  to  consult  her  most  legitimate 
advantage.    An  interpreter  ought  always  to 
have  stood  between  her  and  the  world.3o 

It  was  Charlotte  who  arranged  and  planned  two  of  Emily's 

three  ventures  into  the  world  outside  Haworth.  Charlotte, 

determined  that  the  Bronte  sisters  would  make  their  own  way 

in  the  world,  brought  Braily  to  the  Roe  Head  School  and  to  the 

Pensionat  Heger  in  Brussels.     In  1845  Charlotte  accidentally 

found  B:iiily's  poetry. 

My  sister  Emily  was  not  a  person  of  demonstrative 
character,  nor  one  on  the  recesses  of  whose  mind 
and  feelings  even  those  nearest  and  dearest  to 
her  could,  with  impunity,  intrude  unlicensed: 
it  took  hours  to  reconcile  her  to  the  discovery 
I  had  made. 39 

Charlotte  then  states  that  she  had  to  beg  Emily  for  days 

in  order  to  gain  her  permission  to  have  the  poems  published. 

Permission  was  finally,  but  reluctantly,  given.     Emily  was. 


'  ••  ^        -11^-    -  ■  ] 

as  Charlotte  had  said,  unconcerned  with  the  ways  of  the 
world;  her  world  was  centered  around  the  moors  and  craigs 
of  Yorkshire;  Haworth  and  its  inmates.     In  fact,  Charlotte 
compares  Emily  to  a  nun,  a  nun  who  is  unaware  of  the  traffic 
outside  her  convent  gates. 

Ehily's  life  did  revolve  around  Haworth.  However, 
we  must  understand  that  even  at  Haworth  her  realm  of  ex- 
perience was  severly  limited.     The  other  Brontfe's  taught 
Sunday  school  or  belonged  to  organizations  in  the  village, 
e^.  ^,  f  Branwell  belonged  to  and  was  an  active  member  of 
a  Masonic  lodge  at  Haworth  and  a  boxing  club,  whereas 
Emily  rarely  ventured  outside  the  parsonage  door  "except 
to  go  to  church  or  take  a  walk  on  the  hills  .  .  .  Though  her 
feeling    for  the  people  round  was  benevolent,  intercourse  with 
them  was  never  sought;  nor,  with  very  few  exceptions,  ever 
experienced." 

Btiily  left  her  beloved  Haworth  only  three  times. 

The  first  instance  occurred  when  Charlotte  taught  at  Roe 

Head  School  and  obtained  free  tuition  for  her  sister. 

However,  Emily's  health  quickly  began  to  fail.  Speaking 

of  Bnily,  Charlotte  notes  that 

Every  morning  when  she  woke,  the  vision  of 
home  and  the  moors  rushed  on  her,  and  dark- 
ened and  saddened  the  day  that  lay  before  her. 
Nobody  knew  what  ailed  her  but  me.     I  knew 
only  too  well.     In  this  struggle  her  health 
was  quickly  broken:    her  white  face,  atten- 
uated form,  and  failing  strength  threatened 
rapid  decline.     I  felt  in  my  heart  she  would 
die  if  she  did  not  go  home,  and  with  this 
•  conviction  obtained  her  recall.     She  had  only 
been  three  months  at  school. 

At  the  Pensionat  Heger  Qnily  was  miserable.    Away  from  her 


accustoned  surroundings,  surroundings  which  had  provided 
"the  only  media  they  had  for  expressing  their  creative 
genius,"  Emily's  literary  output  dwindled  to  almost  nothing. 
At  the  death  of  their  Aunt  Branwell,  Emily  and  Charlotte 
returned  to  Haworth.     Emily's  third  absence  from  Haworth 
lasted  six  months.    She  taught  at  Law  Hill  School,  Southowram, 
near  Halifax.    In  all,  Emily  spent  approximately  two  of  her 
thirty  years  away  from  Haworth. 

In  these  two  years  away  from  Haworth  what  man  or  men 
came  within  the  circumference  of  Emily's  narrow  experiences? 
Could  any  other  men  outside  of  Haworth  have  influenced 
Emily  in  her  portrayal  of  various  men  in  Wuthering  Heights? 
We  do  not  find  any  mention  or  suggestion  of  the  unsociable r 
Emily  having  made  any  lasting  contact  with  a  male  outside 
of  the  family. 

We  get  no  clue  from  her  work  that  she  ever 
experienced  a  love  affair,  far  less  that  she 
ever  entertained  amorous  feelings  for  a  living 
person;  love  is  a  conceptual  though  passionate 
.        emotion  in  Emily  Bront^^'s  work.     In  contemporary 
reports,  there  is  no  indication  of  her  falling 
in  love  with  anyone;  moreover,  there  is  no 
sign  that,  merely  lacking  the  opportunity  of 
meeting  men,  she  did  not  fall  in  love.     She  does 
'     '     not  appear  to  have  needed  any  object  of  amorous 
■  or  sexual  attention.     That  is  not  to  say  she 

was  without  passion,  but  to  say  that  passion 
':  in  her,  was  not  focussed  towards  attachments 

to  her  fellownen.     In  other  words,  she  appears 
to  have  been  a  born  celibate  .   .  .^-^ 

Some  critics,  however,  have  attempted  to  link  her  name  with 

M.  Heg^  and  with  William  Weightman,  her  father's  young 

curate.     This  can  only  be  attributed  to  some  type  of  carry 

over  because  Heg/r  was  Charlotte's  mentor  and  Anne  has 

traditionally  thought  to  have  been  in  love  with  Weightman, 


'  I  ■ 

I        ■  -  ■       ■  ■.  -  ■ 

who  flirted  with  her,  and  with  other  girls  in  the  Haworth 
area,  ' 

The  most  ridiculous  connection  of  Emily  Bronte  with 
a  male  centers  around  the  name  Louis  Parensell.     Louis  may 
be  referred  to  as  Emily's  lost  love:     the  wretch,  "whom  she 
met  at  Miss  Patchet's  school  at  Law  Hill,"  who  caused  her 
death.        Poor  Louis  is  so  lost  he,  in  fact,  never  existed. 
The  two  words  Louis  Parensell  are  found,  according  to  Virginia 
Moore,  on  a  poem  of  Ehiily's  in  Charlotte's  handwriting. 
This  poem  was  eventually  printed  after  Emily's  death  as 
'  "Last  Words,"    Unfortunately  for  the  manufacturers  of  legend, 
experts  in  the  manuscript  department  of  the  British  Museum 
say  that  the  words  Louis  Parensell  have  been  misread  for 
Love ' 3  Farewell,     Louis,  therefore,  is  written  out  of 
existence.     Apparently  there  is  no  one  to  take  his  place. 

If  Emily  was  physically,  at  least,  contained  at  the 
Haworth  parsonage,  if  most  of  her  experience  with  other  human 
beings  could  be  equated  with  her  experiences  and  relationships 
with  her  brother  and  sisters,  we  can  see  how  important 
these  relationships  are.     And  what  were  Emily's  relationships 
with  her  brother  and  sisters?    Two  of  Emily's  sisters,  Maria 
and  Elizabeth,  died  when  Emily  was  but  seven.     Though  it 
is  certain  that  the  death  of  Maria  had  a  traumatic  effect 
on  Branwell,  the  death  of  these  two  sisters  is  not  known  to 
have  effected  Emily  greatly.     They  did,  however,  set  the  tone 
of  death  and  desperation  which  overclouded  the  parsonage. 


Together,  Emily  and  Anne  wrote  the  Gondal  material. 
Anne,  the  least  imaginative  of  the  Brontes,  was  used  by 
Emily  as  a  sounding  board.     That  is,  Emily  would  write  a  poem 
on  a  certain  subject  and  then  Anne  would,  two  or  three  months 
later,  write  a  poem  on  the  same  or  a  closely  related  theme. 
This  was  one  aspect  of  their  literary  relationship.  Did 
Anne  ever  penetrate  behind  Emily's  aloofness  and  read  her 
soul? 

It  is  impossible  to  say,  for  Anne  died  within 
a  few  months  of  Emily,  leaving  no  records 
except  her  simple  poems  and  her  two  novels. 
Ellen  Nussey  says  that  in  their  childhood 
the  two. youngest  of  the  Bronte  girls  were 
like  twins,  always  together  and  always  in 
harmony.     They  had  collaborated  over  the 
Gondal  stories  and  paced  arm-in-arm  round 
the  parlour  table.     Probably  Anne  understood 
her  sister's  moods  better  than  anybody  else; 
but  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  she 
could  have  sympathized  with,  or  even  under- 
stood, that  sister's  deepest  and  most  daring 
thoughts. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  the  pius  Anne  could  or  did  probe 

into  the  depths  of  Qnily's  complex  personality. 

Ci  v: J.Charlotte  herself  was  surprised  that  Bnily  wrote 

•poetry  not  "at  all  like  the  poetry  women  generally  write." 

At  the  time  of  Charlotte's  discovery  of  Emily's  poems, 

Emily  had  only  two  more  years  to  live.     By  then  an  impasse 

is  believed  to  have  been  formed  between  the  quiet,  strong,  and 

philosophic  linily  and  Charlotte,  who  was  more  successful  in 

adapting  herself  to  the  real  world. 

Charlotte  was,  though  she  did  not  know  it, 
just  the  kind  of  elder  sister  to  whom  a 
rather  shy  and  sensitive  genius  could  never 
have  opened  its  secret  door3--practical, 
critical,  and  quietly,  kindly,  but  persistently 
dominating.     She  and  Qnily  could  never  have 
been  kindred  spirits.     Their  minds  and  imagin- 
ations moved  on  different  planes. 47 


It  has  been  suggested  that  Snily  did  not  like  Charlotte. 
She  disagreed,  for  example,  with  Charlotte  on  the  aesthetic 
values  of  paintings  in  the  various  London  galleries.  She 
also  enjoyed  seeing  Charlotte  frightened  at  the  prospect  of 
being  near  strange,  unknown  animals.    However,  Emily  went 
along  with  Charlotte's  plans  for  her  study  at  Roe  Head  and 
Brussels.     Charlotte  enthusiastically  conceived  of  the  idea 
of  the  BrontS  sisters  opening  their  own  school.    This  idea 
was  met  with  less  than  wholehearted  approval  from  Einily  and 
Anne.    Writing  to  M.  Heger  about  the  school,  Charlotte  says 
that 

■      Emily  does  not  care  much  for  teaching,  but 
she  would  look  after  the  housekeeping,  and, 
although  something  of  a  recluse,  she  is  too 
goodhearted  not  to  do  all  she  could  for  the 
well-being  of  the  children. ^° 

That  Emily  was  going  to  contribute  in  her  own  way  to 

Charlotte's  proposed  Bronte  school  is  certain;  that  she 

breathed  a  sigh  of  relief  when  the  dream  shattered  is 

probable.  •         .  ' 

■    On  December  1,  1827,  Charlotte  and  Emily  established 
their  "best  plays."     These  "best  plays"  meant  "secret  plays; 
they  are  very  nice  ones.     All  our  plays  are  very  strange 
ones."        Eventually,  however,  Charlotte  gravitated  to 
Branwell' and  they  collaborated  in  writing  the  Angria  legends. 
In  childhood,  Branwell  was  Charlotte's  idol.     Scholars  do 
not  imagine  that  Branwell,  who  had  an  egocentric  nature, 
had  an  early  affinity  for  the  shy  and  tight-lipped  Qaily. 

If  Branwell  and  Emily  cannot  be  thought  of  as 
incestuous  lovers  or  literary  collaborators  in  childhood. 


-19- 


together  they  could  be  regarded  as  religious  rebels. 
Branwell's  cynicism  about  religion  and  his  refusal  to 
attend  religious  services  undoubtedly  hurt  his  father. 
Regardless  of  what  Branwell  really  believed  or  the  torments 
and  doubts  he  endured,  he  did  put  forth  a  rebellious  attitude 
toward  religion.     An  early  verse  demonstrates  this: 

We  say  the  world  was  made  by  one 
;        Who's  seen  or  heard  or  known  by  none; 

We  say  that  He,  the  Almighty  God, 
'        Has  framed  creation  with  a  nod. 

And  that  he  loves  our  race  so  well 

He  hurls  our  spirits  into  Hell. 

No,  Heaven  is  but  an  earthly  dream. 

'Tis  Man  makes  God--not  God  makes  him. 50 

In  Pattern  for  Genius,  Edith  Kinsley  says  that: 

If  the  early  enmity  between  Branwell  and 
Emily  often  terrified  their  sisters,  it 

'  -  ,v        was  not  so  terrifying  as  their  later  affinity. 
From  infancy  they  had  united  in  truancy,  in 
running  away  to  the  moors.     It  was  intellectual 
revolt  which  effected  an  inseperable  alliance 

■  '  between  them.     Emily  was  the  more  rational 

and  resolute  of  the  two.     In  becoming  an  un- 
believer--and  this  was  a  colossal  adventure 
;        for  the  child  of  a  clergyman  in  the  l820's — 
she  formed  new  concepts  for  herself,  concepts 
\    ■    ;'•       greater  and  more  satisfying  than  she  had  lost; 
therefore,  she  took  her  freedom  of  thought 
without  guilt.     It  was  otherwise  with  Branwell. 

'       ;      Perhaps,  for  that  reason,  he  was  the  more 
daring.  51 

In  contrast  to  Branwell,  Emily  attained  the  most 
sophisticated  and  individual  metaphysic  of  all  the  Brontes. 
Her  ideas  on  religion,  on  God,  are  very  much  different 
from  the  Hellfire  and  Damnation  of  her  Aunt  Branv;ell,  who 
raised  the  Brontes,  or  her  father,  the  Rev.  Patrick  Bronte. 
Poems  such  as  "No  Coward  Soul  is  Mine"  and  the  philosophical 
and  theological  implications  of  Wutherinp;  Heights  make  us 


-20- 

.    '.   '  r  ■    '  ' '  '  .  '     ■  ■  •  " 

realize  that  Btiily  "was  far  removed  from  orthodoxy,  and  that 

what  faith  she  retained  she  held,  not  with  the  help  of, 

52 

but  in  spite  of,  religious  formulae."       Mary  Taylor,  a 

friend  of  Charlotte's  and  quite  a  rebel  herself,  remembered 

that  on  a  visit  to  Haworth  she  '    '  ■ 

,  .  ,  mentioned  that  someone  has  asked  me  what 
religion  I  was  (with  a  view  to  getting  me  for 
a  partisan).    I  had  said  that  was  between  God 
and  me.     Emily,  who  was  lying  on  the  hearth 
rug,  exclaimed;   'That's  right.'  This  was  all 
5  I  ever  heard  Einily  say  on  religious  subjects  .  .  . 

With  similar  exterior  attitudes  coming  from  drastically 

divergent  sources,  I  believe  that  Emily  could  at  least 

respect  Branwell's  opinions  on  religion  and  his  rebellious 

attitude,  since  she  was  a  religious  rebel  herself. 

In  the  eyes  of  the  world  and  according  to  the 
world's  standards,  Emily  and  Branwell  were  both  failures. 
We  have  already  mentioned  Qnily's  inability  to  survive 
outside  of  Haworth.    Anne  was  strong  enough  to  serve  as 
a  governess  for  four  years  at  Thorp  Green;  Charlotte  con- 
tinued her  studies  at  the  Pensionat  Hege'r  without  Bnily 
and  acted  in  various  positions  as  governess.     Emily  was 
quite  happy  to  stay  at  home  and  perform  in  the  role  of 
housewife  and  nurse;  Rev.  Bronte  was  then  suffering  from 
failing  eyesight. 

Branwell,  who  was  raised  with  the  idea  of  certainly 
attaining  the  highest  realms  of  greatness,  suffered  his 
initial  defeat  when  he  went  to  London  in  order  to  be 
accepted  at  the  Royal  Academy  of  Arts.     Branwell  did  not 
even  apply,  spent  most  of  his  time  at  the  Castle  Tavern, 


-21- 


and  returned  home  without  any  money.     In  1835  only  Emily 

of  his  sisters  was  at  Haworth  to  greet  him. 

It  may  have  been  as  well  for  Branwell  that  it 
happened  to  be  Emily  who  was  at  home,  for 
Emily  could  understand  his  predicament  if 
anybody  in  the  family  could.     She  had  just, 
\  herself,  suffered  a  mortifying  failure  at 

i        Roe  Head  and  fled  home  on  an  impulse  of  self- 
preservation,  different  in  degree  but  not  in 
•nature,  from  his.     It  was  not  work  that  daunted 
Emily,  but  the  removal  from  surroundings  es- 
'■         sential  to  her  nature.     It  may  well  be  that 
'i  ■       in  that  first  association  of  brother  and 

sister,  there  was  formed  that  closeness  of 
:  ■        understanding  and  tolerance  which  united 
'         Emily  to  Branwell  in  his  direst  need  at  the 
^         end  of  his  life.5ij- 

Por  different  reasons,  Emily  too  was  repelled  by  London; 
as  Charlotte  said,  "It  [visiting  London!  is  one  no  power 
on  earth  would  induce  Ellis  Bell  to  avail  himself  of." 

Biographers  of  Bnily,  due  to  Miss  Robinson,  have 
attempted  to  portray  Emily  as  the  all-forgiving,  devoted, 
understanding,  and  sympathetic  sister  of  a  drunken,  dope- 
addict  of  a  brother.     Miss  Robinson  states  that: 

...  there  was  one  woman's  heart  strong  enough 
in  its  compassion  to  bear  the  daily  disgusts, 
weaknesses,  sins  of  Branwell's  life,  and  yet 
persist  in  aid  and  affection.     She  never  wandered 
in  her  kindness.    In  that  silent  house  it  was 
the  silent  Emily  who  had  ever  a  cheering 
word  for  Branwell;  it  was  Emily  who  still  re- 
membered that  he  was  her  brother,  without 
that  remembrance  forcing  her  heart  to  numb-  ^, 
ness.    She  still  hoped  to  win  him  back  by  love.-' 

This  is  all  very  heart  stirring;  however.  Miss  Robinson 
had  no  substantial  evidence  upon  which  to  base  her  inter- 
pretation of  the  Branwell-Emily  relationship.    We  have  only 
two  recorded  comments  of  Emily's  on  Branwell's  depraved 


condition.     In  l8i^5>  after  Branwell  returned  from  Thorp 


-22- 


Green  and  his  affair  with  Mrs.  Lydia  Robinson,  Bmily  and 

Anne  recorded  that  Branwell  had  recently  "had  much  tribulation 

and  ill  health"  and  were  hoping  that  "he  would  be  better 

57 

and  do  better  hereafter."       At  this  point,  however, 
Charlotte  considered  Branwell  as  unredeemable.  Emily, 

in  l8i;6,  wrote  to  Charlotte  that  Branwell  "is  a  hopeless 

58 

being."       He  had  just  gotten  a  sovereign  from  his  father, 

pretending  that  he  was  going  to  pay  a  debt  with  it.  Instead 

he  used  it  for  drink.  ,    .  . 

Certainly  Branwell,  a  year  from  his  death,  was  a 

"hopeless  being."    I  feel  that  at  this  time  Emily  realized, 

as  did  Branwell  himself,  that  his  undisciplined  childhood, 

coupled  with  an  overflowing,  emotional  temperment  had 

crippled  him  and  made  him  unfit  to  live  in  the  real  world. 

One  scholar  feels  that  Emily  "characterized  him  with  a 

59 

mildness  which  seems  a  miracle  of  understatement," 

Emily,  I  think,  simply  realized  the  true  state  of  affairs, 

while  Charlotte  in  her  many  comments  on  Branwell 's  condition 

could  only  berate  him  for  not  finding  employment,  for 

embarassing  the  family,  for  making  their  home  unpleasant. 

Branwell,  for  example,  once  told  a  friend  of  his  visit 

to  a  dying  Sunday  school  girl  to  whom  he  read,  at  her 

request,  a  psalm  and  hymn.    Not  stopping  at  the  Black 

Bull  Tavern,  but  coming  "straight  home"  in  a  depressed 

state  of  mind,  Charlotte  questioned  him  as  to  his  mood. 

When  he  told  her  what  he  had  been  doing  Charlotte 

...  looked  at  me  with  a  look  I  shall  never 
forget — if  I  live  to  be  a  hundred  years  old 
....  It  wounded  me  as  if  someone  had  struck 


-23- 


me  a  blow  to  the  mouth.    It  involved  ever  so 
many  things  in  it.     It  was  a  dubious  look. 
It  ran  over  me,  questioning  and  examining, 
as  if  I  had  been  a  wild  beast.     It  said, 
'Did  my  ears  deceive  me  or  did  I  hear  aright?' 
And  then  came  the  painful,  baffled  expression, 
which  was  worse  than  all.     It  said,   'I  wonder 
if  that's  true?'oO 

As  I  stated  earlier,  Branwell  and  Emily  did  not 
collaborate  in  literary  productions  during  their  childhood. 
This  is  not  to  say  that  the  older  children,  Branwell  and 
Charlotte,  did  not  influence  the  younger  sisters,  Emily 
and  Anne.     For  example,  one  can  find  the  use  of  similar 
or  identical  names  in  the  Angrian  and  Gondal  material. 
Hov;ever,  in  1835,  when  only  Emily  and  Branwell  were  at 
Haworth,  a  "close  association  between  these  two"  is  be- 
lieved to  have  developed. This  idea  is  based  on  the 
fact  that 

Five  short  lyrics,  one  slightly  longer  poem, 
and  parts  of  three  long  ones  now  assigned  to 
Branwell  have  been  printed  as  Emily's,  and  this 
"not  only  because  of  confusion  of  manuscripts 
and  similarity  of  handwriting,  but  because 
they  are  really  like  Emily.     Not  Emily  at  her 
best  or  second  best,  but  such  as  a  clever 
and  sensitive  imitator  might  readily  pro- 
duce, unconscious  of  imitation.     All  these 
poems  belong  to  the  years  I836,   '37»  and 
'38,  when  Emily  and  Branwell  were  both  at 
home,  not  continuously  but  more  or  le?5» 
and  Charlotte  and  Anne  mostly  absent. °^ 

Einily  is  also  known  to  have  copied  Branwell 's  poem  "Sir 

Henry  Tuns tall"  for  him,  a  poem  thought  to  be  his  best. 

Friends  of  the  deceased  Branwell  suggested,  in 

the  last  century,  that  he  was  the  true  author  of  Wuthering 

Heights.     Those  who  still  uphold  this  theory  bring  forth 

the  most  ridiculous  of  arguments  in  support  of  their  cause. 


-21;- 

-f ' 

Miss  Alice  Law,  for  example,  argues  that  Emily  could  not 
have  written  Wuthering  Heights  simply  because  she  was  a 
woman.     Miss  Law  apparently  has  not  recovered  from  a  bad 
case  of  Victorian  sensitivity;  neither  has  she  read  Btiily's 
Gondal  poems  in  which  the  barest  outlines  of  Wuthering  Heights 
can  be  traced.     Suily  is  thus  relegated  by  Miss  Law  to  a 
life  of  pink  sateen  pillows  and  needlework.     I  believe 
that  there  is  enough  external  evidence  to  totally  confound 
any  argument  put  forth  for  Branwell's  authorship  of  " 
Wuthering  Hei_ghts.     Even  a  hasty  glance  at  Branwell's 
attempted  novel,  "And  the  Weary  are  at  Rest,"  will  demonstrate 
how  impossible  the  above  assertion  is. 

We  know  that  Branwell  Bronte's  father  expected  him 
to  produce,  in  his  mature  years,  the  fruits  of  genius. 
Though  not  the  eldest  child,  he  was  set  above  the  girls. 
As  Charlotte  says,  "My  poor  father  naturally  thought  more 
of  his  only  son  than  his  daughters,  and  much  and  long  as 
he  had  suffered  on  his  account,  he  cried  out  for  his  loss 

like  David  for  that  of  Absalom- -My  sonl    my  son 1  and  refused 

63 

to  be  comforted."        By  the  age  of  twenty,  however,  the 
Rev.  Patrick  BrontS's  only  son  had  started  on  the  path  of 
disintegration  which  would  end  in  death  ten  years  later. 
Emily,  who,  I  believe,  had  more  in  common  with  Branwell 
than  Anne  or  Charlotte  and,  therefore,  understood  the  reasons 
for  his  hopeless  deterioration,  watched  his  slow,  but  sure, 
collapse.     Charlotte  wrote  in  the  biographical  notice  to  the 
second  edition  of  Wuthering  Heights  that  Eknily  and  Anne 


-25- 


"always  wrote  from  the  impulse  of  nature,  the  dictates 

of  intuition,  and  from  such  stores  of  observation  as  their 

limited  experiences  had  enabled  them  to  amass."        We  have 

already  seen  how  very  limited  Emily's  experience  was. 

There  are  two  main  critical  positions  on  whether 

Branwell's  shadow  can  be  found  in  Wuthering  Heights.  Some 

critics  completely  reject  the  thesis  that  Emily  consciously 

or  subconsciously  drew  upon  Branwell  in  her  characterizations 

of  various  male  characters.     These  critics,  like  Miss  . 

Law,  depart  on  their  own  arguments  from  Miss  Robinson's 

sentimental  version  of  the  Branwell-Emily  connection. 

Miss  Law  feels  that  Emily  loved  Branwell  so  much  that  to 

have  "used"  him  is  unthinkable.    She  states: 

As  for  the  suggestion  made  both  by  Sir 
Wemyss  Re id  and  Miss  Robinson,  that  Emily 
drew  the  study  of  Heathcliff  from  her  unfortu- 
nate brother's  experiences,  that  she  was  so 
cruelly  detached  from  human  sympathy  as  to 
'use'  his  vices  for  her  ovm  artistic  ends, 
and  so  'drew  its  profit  from  her  brother's 
shame, '  the  suggestion  is  an  outrage  on  this 
• ■         loving  guardian  of  her  brother.     If  we  in- 
terpret that  fiery  nature  aright,  we  must 
believe  that  Emily  would  rather  have  bitten 
out  her  tongue  or  burnt  off  the  offending 
hand  than  have  uttered  or  penned  a  line  that 
should  defame  him.°5 

We  have  already  shown  that  there  is  no  positive  proof  that 

Emily  was  the  "loving  guardian  of  her  brother." 

Muriel  Spark  bases  her  rejection  of  the  thesis  on 

the  fact  that  Branwell  was  too  close  to  the  Bront*4  sisters 

and  offered  no  mystery  to  be  solved.     However,  she  states 

that  while  Branwell  was  drowning  his  troubles  at  the  Black 

Bull  Tavern,  "The  sisters,  awed,  frightened,  impressed. 


contemptuous,  and  a  little  thrilled  looked  on-  and  sighed 

66 

when  the  creditors  came  to  the  door."        A  few  pages  later 

Miss  Spark  states: 

•While  they  wrote  the  books,  Branwell  was 
■     s ,  ,     ■  Rapidly  deteriorating,  and  so  it  is  sometimes 
claimed  that  Etnily  and  Anne  drew  upon  their 
brother  for  'copy',  reproducing  him  in  their 
novels.     This  seems  unlikely;  they  actually 
saw  too  much  of  Branwell  to  use  him  effectively 
in  this  way.     There  was  no  mystery  in  Branwell 
to  be  worked  out  in  their  novels. °7 

This  does  not  make  sense.     Surely  if  the  Brontfe^  sisters 

were  "awed,  frightened,  impressed,  contemptuous,  and  a  little 

thrilled"  over  Branwell  and  his  actions  he  would  be  on  their 

minds.    They  could  not  dismiss  him  with  a  yawn.  During 

Branwell 's  last  three  years  his  dissipation  and  disease 

increased  ten  fold;  there  was  still  much  shock  value  left. 

Miss  Spark  writes  a  psychological  study  of  Emily  Bront^, 

and  yet  she  discounts  any  subconscious  use  of  Branwell  by 

Emily.     If  the  feelings  the  Bronte  sisters  had  regarding 

Branwell  were  too  volatile  for  them  to  handle  on  the  surface, 

perhaps  they  were  driven  underground,  where  they  remained 

until  called.     I  think  that  Miss  Spark's  interpretation  of 

this  problem  is  influenced  by  the  fact  that  she  thinks  Branwell 

a  mediocre  person,  one  who  was  "neither  a  dissipated  villain 

68 

nor  broken-hearted  hero."        Obviously  a  second-rater, 

the  Brontes  had  no  reason  to  call  upon  him  in  the  construction 

of  their  masterpieces..  ■ 

At  the  opposite  end  of  the  critical  scale  we  find 
critics  and  biographers  who  suggest  that  Branwell  is  not 
only  found  in  the  Brontes'  works,  but  actually  motivated  them 


to  write  in  order  to  obtain  a  catharsis.     One  of  these 
biographers  is  the  noble  Mrs.  Gaskell  who,  believes  Sir 
Wemyss  Reid, 

carried  away  by  her  honest  womanly  horror 
'  of 'hardened  vice,  gives  us  to  understand 
that  the  tragic  turning-point  in  the  lives  of 
the  sisters  was  connected  with  the  disgrace 
r:  and  ruin  of  their  brother  ....  It  is  not 

so.    There  may  be  disappointment  among  those 
who  have  been  nurtured  on  the  traditions  of 
Brontg  romance  when  they  find  that  the  reality 
is  different  from  what  they  supposed  it  to 
be;  some  shallow  judges  ma/  even  assume  that 
Charlotte  herself  loses  in  moral  stature  when 
it  is  shown  that  it  was  not  her  horror  at  her 
brother's  fall  which  drove  her  to  find  relief 
in  literary  speech.     But  the  truth  must  be  told  .  . 

At  one  time  the  Bronte  novels,  especially  Jane  Eyre,  were 

thought  to  be  almost  strictly  autobiographical.  This, 

coupled  with  Victorian  prudery,  must  have  developed  the 

theory  that  Branwell's  degeneration  inspired  the  then  shocking 

Bronte  novels.     It  is  difficult  for  us  to  believe  that  in 

1877  when  the  above  quotation  was  published  there  were 

"shallow  judges"  in  existence  who  would  think  less  of  the 

Brontis  if  their  theory  was  confounded. 

•  ■    As  in  all  things  there  is  a  middle  position, 

a  golden  mean.     It  is  this  moderate  argument  with  which  I 

concur.     The  reasoning  behind  this  position,  which  I  have 

attempted  to  develop  in  this  paper,  is  stated  succinctly 

by  Edith  Kinsley  in  Pattern  for  Genius ; 

.   .   .  the  world  the  sisters  inhabited  was 
peculiarly  circumscribed,  and  the  persons  it 
contained,  few.     Certainly  they  used  every 
scrap  of  authentic  material  at  their  disposal; 
even  so,  their  experience  was  limited.  What 
they  knew  well  was  Haworth  and  its  small  circle 
of  legend,  people,  and  moors;  still  better 
they  knew  the  interior  of  Haworth  parsonage 
and  the  family  it  contained.     The  only  two  men 


-28- 


with  whom  the  sisters  were  at  all  intimate 
were  their  father  and  their  brother,  with  the 
possible  additions  of  William  Weightman,  Mr. 
Bronte's  young  curate,  and  Monsieur  Heg^, 
Charlotte's  and  Bnily's  instructor  in  Brussels. 
Therefore,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  self- 
portraits  ^nd  the  portraits  of  Branwell  and 
Mr.  Bronte  were  continually  drawn  in  the  novels 
and  repeated  again  and  again,  under  varying 
aspects  and  in  different  circumstances,  but  with 
a  poignancy  and  accuracy  which  do  not  exist 
elsewhere, 

I  believe  that  Branwell  Brontl?'s  spirit  roams  the  pages 

of  Wuthering  Heights ;  I  do  not  believe  that  Wuther ing  ■ 

Heights  is  his  biography.     Although  some  critics  have  found 

him  in  the  characters  of  Linton  Heathcliff,  Edgar  Linton, 

and  even  Catherine  Earnshaw,  I  believe  he  is  strongly 

present  only  in  the  characters  of  Lockwood,  Hindley,  and 

Heathcliff.     Each  of  these  characters  in  V/uthering  Heights 

carries  some  of  Branwell  Bronte's  attitudes,  actions,  beliefs, 

or  poses.    Branwell 's  friends  themselves  "were  struck  by 

the  appearance  in  V/uthering  Heights  of  several  of  Branwell 's 

characteristic  expressions,  not  perceiving  how  familiar 

71 

these  must  have  been  to  Emily."        As  Laura  Hinkley  states 

in  The  Brontes,  Charlotte  and  Bnily,  "That  Branwell  himself, 

both  before  and  after  his  collapse,  unconsciously  supplied 

a  great  deal  of  material  for  Wuthering  Heights  is  self-evident. 

Both  Hindley  and  Heathcliff  were,  in  Miss  Hinkley' 3 

phrase,  "fatally  favored"  children.     Hindley  was  spoiled 

by  his  father  until  Heathcliff 's  appearance.     Mr.  Earnshaw 

then  "took  to  Heathcliff  strangely,  believing  all  he  said 

73 

.   .  .  and  petting  him  up  far  above  Cathy."        Hindley  finds 

.« 

Heathcliff  to  be  "a  usurper  of  his  parent's  affections  and 


-29-  .  '  . 

his  privileges;  and  .  .   .  grew  bitter  with  brooding 

7k 

over  these  injuries."       Heathcliff  during  his  childhood 
was  a 

sullen  boy  who  never  .   .   .  repaid  his 
[Mr.  Earnshaw'"!)  indulgence  by  any  sign  of 
gratitude.     He  was  not  insolent  to  his 
benefactor,  he  was  simply  insensible; 
though  knowing  perfectly  the  hold  he  had 
on  his  heart  and  conscious  he  had  only 
-        to  speak  and  the  house  would  be  obliged 
to  bend  to  his  wishes. 75 

Not  only  did  Branwell's  father  favor  him,  his  mother, 

while  she  lived  and  his  Aunt  Branwell  did  too.     In  Charlotte's 

only  recollection  of  her  mother,  who  died  when  Charlotte 

was  five,  Maria  Branwell  Bronte  was  "lying  on  a  couch  and 

fondly  playing  with  her  infant  son."        While  the  Bronte 


girls  led  very  sheltered  and  protected  lives,  Branwell 

was  allowed  to  frolic  with  the  village  boys  and  did  not 

undergo  strict  disciplining.     Perhaps  with  Branwell  in 

mind  Charlotte  wrote  the  following  to  Miss  Wooler,  her  former 

teacher: 

You  ask  me  if  I  do  not  think  that  men  are 
strange  beings.     I  do,   indeed,  I  have  often 
thought  so;  and  I  think,  too,  that  the  mode 
of  bringing  them  up  is  strange:     they  are  not 
sufficiently  guarded  from  temptation.  Girls 
are  protected  as  if  they  were  something  very 
frail  and  silly  indeed,  while  boys  are  turned 
loose  on  the  world,  as  if  they,  of  all  beings 
in  existence,  were  the  wisest  and  least  likely 
to  be  led  astray. 77 

Branwell's  liberal  education  was  particularly 

ruinous  to  an  already  unstable  personality.     In  l8i|.7 

Branwell  wrote  that  he  had  "been  in  truth  too  much  petted 
78 

through  life."        Looking  on  the  "noble  face  and  forehead 
of  her  dead  brother"  Charlotte  "seemed  to  receive 


an  oppressive  revelation  of  the  feebleness  of  humanity.  Of 

the  inadequacy  of  even  genius  to  lead  to  true  greatness 

79 

if  unaided  by  religion  and  principle."  Branwell's 

father  is  unanimously  blamed  for  his  son's  spineless 

condition.     Like  Hindley,  Branwell  would  not  have  the  moral 

stamina  to  act  courageously  when  adversity  struck  and  would 

end  his  life  in  a  state  of  drunken  wretchedness. 

Heathcliff  and  Branwell  were  both  favored  with 

unselfish  love  and  devotion.     Heathcliff,  because  of  his 

elevated  position  in  the  Earnshaw  household,  naturally 

expected  everything  to  go  his  way.     If  his  pony  became 

crippled  he  would  demand  Hindley' s  and  get  it.  Branwell 

was  raised  with  the  idea  that  success  as  an  artist  would 

be  handed  to  him.     His  family  had 

given  him  to  understand  that  God  had  bestowed 
upon  him  a  preferential  issue  of  talents.  With 
such  backing  it  should  be  easy  for  him  to  storm 
a  triumphant  way  through  life.     He  came  to  take 
it  for  granted  that  both  God  and  his  family 
were  tremendously  interested  in  his  welfare. 

According  to  Cooper-Willis,  Branwell  suffered  from  a 

"psychic  injury"  because  he  was  one  from  whom  "too  much 

was  expected  and  upon  whom  too  much  advanced  admiration 
81 

was  lavished."        However,  Branwell  and  Heathcliff  were 
denied  their  childhood  expectations;  expectations  they 
learned  to  look  for  with  confidence,  but  never  really 
deserved.    If  Heathcliff  had  always  been  treated  as  a 
menial  servant,  he  would  never  have  expected  to  live  on 
as  the  master  of  V/uthering  Heights,  or  at  least  as  a 
member  of  the  ruling  class.     If  Branwell  had  not  been  raised 


-31-  . 

with  the  idea  that  he  would  naturally  become  an  acclaimed 
and  an  appreciated  artist  he  might  have  worked  and  attained 
his  goal. 

Unfortunately  for  Branwell,  the  modern  judgment  of 

his  talents  is  not  flattering.    Fannie  Ratchford  states 

that  Branwell 's  "early  precocity  held  not  a  spark  of  genius 

and  that  his  development  ceased  after  his  fifteenth  or 

82 

sixteenth  year."        In  Angus  Mackay's  The  Brontes,  Fact 

and  Fiction  we  read  that  "it  is  impossible  to  credit  him 

[sranwel^  with  unusual  mental  talents.    With  his  letters 

before  us  we  cannot  but  perceive  that  he  was  intellectually 

commonplace."        Phyllis  Bentley  feels  that  the  early  Angrian 

writings  "reveal  the  inferiority  of  the  unhappy  Branwell." 

Miss  Bentley  also  points  out  the  fact  that  Charlotte  "in 

her  Angrian  writings  often  pokes  fun  at  the  bad  verse, 

tedious  prose  and  affected  mannerisms  of  'young  Soult, ' 

and  the  specimens  reveal  that  her  criticisms  are  only  too 
85 

well-founded."        Regardless  of  how  much  Charlotte  made  fun 
of  Branwell  she  still  thought  of  him  as  a  "genius,"  e_.£. , 
her  death-bed  description  of  him  and  her  flattering  description 
of  him  given  to  Mrs.  Gaskell.     Branwell,  then,  was  expected 
to  do  great  things  and  yet  he  had  neither  the  tools,  nor  the 
training,  nor  the  talent:    he  was  damned  from  the  beginning. 

Branwell,  like  Lockwood,  considered  himself  to  be 
quite  a  lady-killer.  During  his  fii*st  visit  to  Wuthering 
Heights,  Catherine  Heathcliff  is  totally  oblivious  of  Lockwood. 


-32- 


However  he  is  thinking : 

A  sad  pity — I  must  beware  how  I  cause  her  to 
regret  her  choice.     The  last  reflection  may 
seem  conceited;  it  was  not.     My  neighbour 
struck  me  as  bordering  on  repulsive;  I  knew, 
through  experience,  that  I  was  tolerably  at- 
tractive. 80 

At  the  very  beginning  of  his  narration,  Lockwood  must  tell 

us  of  his  experience  at  the  sea-coast  and  the  "fascinating 

creature"  he  met  and  conquered  there.     That  is,  when  the 

lovely  girl  returned  his  attentions  he  ran  away  in  terror. 

Both  of  these  episodes  sound  remarkably  like  Branwell. 

The  five  foot,  three  inch  Romeo  wrote  the  follo\>ring  while 

serving  as  a  tutor  in  the  family  of  Mr.  Postlethwaite  of 

Broughton  House: 

As  to  the  young  onesi     I  have  one  sitting  by  me 
just  novj'--f air-faced,  blue-eyed,  dark-haired, 
sweet  eighteen-^she  little  thinks  the  devil 
is  so  near  herl^' 

He,  like  Lockwood,  thought  women  to  be  very  susceptible  to 

his  charms.  H'V-' 

When  Branwell  was  twenty  he  fell  in  love  with  Mary 

Taylor.     However,  when  his  feelings  were  obviously  being 

reciprocated,  he  backed  off.     Charlotte  in  a  letter  to 

Ellen  Nussey  mentions  this: 

Did  I  not  once  tell  you  of  an  instance  of 
a  Relative  of  mine  who  cared  for  a  young  lady 
till  he  began  to  suspect  that  she  cared  more  for 
him  and  then  instantly  conceived  a  sort  of 
contempt  for  her?    You  know  to  what  I  allude — 
never  as  you  value  your  ears  mention  the 
circumstance — 

His  behavior  is  startlingly  like  Lockwood 's  in  a  similar 
predicame nt . 

The  idea  of  Branxv'ell  being  a  very  effective  Don 


-33- 


Juan  becomes  amusing  when  one  realizes  what  he  looked  like. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-three  he  was  described,  by  his  friend 

Grundy,  as  being 

Insignificantly  small,  one  of  his  life's 
trails  .   .   .  his  mass  of  red  hair  brushed  high 
off  his  forehead  to  help  his  height — his 
great,  bumpy,  intellectual  forehead,  nearly 
half  the  size  of  his  whole  facial  contour — 
small,  ferrety  eyes,  deep  sunk  and  still 
further  hidden  by  near-removed  spectacles  I °° 

Mrs.  Gaskell,  describing  Branwell  from  a  woman's  point  of 

view  says: 

.'  .      r      ....  I  have  seen  Branwell 's  profile;  it  was 
what  would  generally  esteemed  very  handsome; 
the  forehead  is  massive,  the  eye  well  set,  and 
the  expression  of  it  fine  and  intellectual; 
the  nose  too  is  good;  but  there  are  coarse 
lines  about  the  mouth,  while  the  slightly 
retreating  chil  conveys  and  idea  of  weakness 
of  will.     His  hair  and  complexion  were  sandy. 
He  had  enough  Irish  blood  in  him  to  make  his 
manners  frank  and  genial,  with  a  kind  of 
natural  gallantry  about  them, 90 

Having  seen  a  reproductiion  of  the  profile  mentioned  by 

Mrs.  Gaskell,  I  agree  with  Grundy's  description.     It  is 

obvious  that  in  this  case,  as  in  many  others,  beauty  is 

in  the  eye  of  the  beholder. 

Regardless  of  which  description  one  accepts  as 

valid,  Branwell  was  the  man  with  whom  Mrs.  Lydia  Robinson 

fell  madly,  passionately  in  love — according  to  Branwell. 

Though  drinking  and  dope  addiction  helped  to  destroy  him, 

it  was  his  own  image  of  being  a  great  lover  that  finished  him. 

He  refused  to  accept  the  reality  of  his  rejection:     to  the 

end  he  could  say  "she  loved  me  even  better  than  I  did  her."'^''" 

According  to  May  Sinclair  "One  of  the  most  familiar  symptoms 

of  morphia  mania  is  a  tendency  to  erotic  hallucinations  of 


-31;- 

92 

the  precise  kind  that  Branwell  suffered  from." 

Lockwood  and  Branwell  are  both  cynical,  worldly, 

and  skeptical.    Again  referring  to  Catherine  Heathcliff, 

Lockwood  thinks: 

Living  among  clowns  and  misanthropists, 
she  probably  cannot  appreciate  a  better 
class  of  people  when  she  meets  them  • 
the  stirring  atmosphere  of  the  townl°3 

Writing  to  Joseph  Leyland,  Branwell  says: 

I  long  to  see  you  again  at  Haworth  and 
!  forget  for  half  a  day  the  amiable  society 

in  which  I  am  placed,  where  I  never  hear  . 
a  word  more  musical  than  an  ass's  bray  .  ,  ."^ 

To  visiting  strangers  Branwell  would  remark,  "Sir,  I  live 

95 

among  barbarians."        Writing  to  Leyland  about  a  work  of 

his  executed  for  the  Haworth  church,  Branwell  stated  that 

his  friend's  "work  at  Haworth  has  given  to  all  who  have 

seen  it  the  most  unqualified  satisfaction  even  where  they 

96 

understood  nothing  of  its  real  merit."        Even  though  he 

stated  his  belief  in  the  inferiority  of  the  Haworth  villagers, 

he  got  along  very  well  with  them  and  from  the  age  of 

seventeen  enjoyed  their  company  at  the  Black  Bull  Tavern. 

After  his  reactions  during  his  nightmare  at 

Wuthering  Heights,  which  is  thought  to  be  pure  Branwell, 

Lockwood,  an  unbeliever,  can  stand  back  and  say  of  Heathcliff: 

...  my  compassion  made  me  overlook  its 
folly,  and  I  drew  off,  half  angry  to  have 
listened  at  all,  and  vexed  at  having  re- 
\  lated  my  ridiculous  nightmare,  since  it 

produced  that  agony;  though  why  was  beyond 
my  comprehension. 9? 

We  have  mentioned  Branv;ell's  own  cynicism.     A  descendent  of 


-35-  ,. , 

Leyland's  thought  Branwell  and  Leyland  had  much  in  common; 

that  is,  they  were  both  "self-opinionated,  sarcastic  and 

unreliable,  scornful  of  religion  and  of  anyone  who  disagreed 
98 

with  him. "  ... 

Both  Lockwood  and  Heathcliff  inherited  Branwell 's 

habit  of  prefacing  or  ending  his  remarks  with  "sir." 

This  habit  Branwell,  in  turn,  got  from  his  father.  In 

the  first  chapter  of  Wuthering  Heights ,  four  out  of  twelve 

comments  by  Heathcliff  or  Lockwood  contain  the  word  sir. 

Bradby  states  that  "as  Emily's  ideas  of  how  men  talked  must 

have  been  derived  largely  from  her  brother's  conversation, 

it  is  not  surprising  to  find  Mr.  Lockwood  talking  at  times 
99 

like  Branwell." 

\'Th.en  Hindley  comes  to  pov;er  he  is  allowed  to  unleash 

all  his  brutality  on  Heathcliff.     Enjoying  even  the  minor 

torments  he  can  offer  Heathcliff,  Hindley  instructs  his  wife. 

Prances,  to  "pull  his  hair  as  you  go  by:     I  heard  him  snap 
100 

his  fingers."         This  was  also  a  favorite  trick  of  Branwell 's 
when  he  lost  patience  with  the  boys  in  his  Sunday  school 
class.    He  would  pick  them  up  by  a  lock  of  hair  and  ad- 
minister a  smart  rap, 

Hindley's  later  drunkenness  is,  of  course,  drawn 
from  Branwell 's  own  addiction,     Branwell  began  drinking 
at  seventeen  and  experimented  with  opium  at  twenty-three. 
Grundy  reports  that  Branwell  "dosed  openly  with  laudanum" 

and  "boasted  that  it  took  six  glasses  of  whiskey  to  make 

101 

the  company  of  others  endurable  to  him."  The  last  twelve 


-36- 


year  3  of  Branwell's  life  record  a  growing,  an  ever  increasing 

inability  to  live  without  some  type  of  stimulant.     At  the 

age  of  twenty-eight  Branwell  wrote,  "I  shall  never  be 

able  to  realize  the  too  sanguine  hopes  of  my  friends,   .   .  . 

102 

I  am  a  thoroughly  old  man — mentally  and  bodily — " 

If  Catherine  Earnshaw  was  but  eighteen  when  she  died, 

Hindley  could  not  have  been  over  thirty  when  Isabella  Linton 

Heathcliff  described  him  as 

...  a  tall,  gaunt  man,  without  neckerchief 
and  otherwise  extremely  slovenly;  his  features 
were  lost  in  masses  of  shaggy  hair  that  hung 
on  his  shoulders;  and  his  eyes,  too,  were  like 
a  ghostly  Catherine's  with  all  their  beauty 
annihilated. . 

Due  to  his  addiction  to  opium,  Branwell  lost  his  appetite 

and  his  clothes  literally  hung  on  him.     A  few  days  before 

his  death,  Branwell  had  dinner  with  his  friend,  Grundy. 

Grundy  very  vividly  describes  Branwell's  appearance  as  he 

cautiously  opened  the  door  and  entered  a  private  dining 

room  in  a  small  Haworth  inn: 

Presently  the  door  opened  cautiously  and  a 

head  appeared.     It  was  a  mass  of  unkempt 

uncut  hair,  wildly  floating  round  a  great 

gaunt  forehead;  the  cheeks  yellow  and 

hollow,  the  mouth  fallen,  the  thin  lips 

not  trembling  but  shaking,  the  sunken  eyes, 

once  small  now  glaring  with  the  light  of  madness  . 

As  Branwell  left 

...  he  quietly  drevj  from  his  sleeve  a 

carving  knife,  placed  it  on  the  table 

and  holding  me  by  both  hands,  said  that 

having  given  up  all  thoughts  of  ever 

seeing  me  again,  he  imagined  when  my 

message  came  that  it  v/as  a  call  from 

Satan.     Dressing  himself,  he  took  the 

knife,  which  he  had  long  secreted,  and 

came  to  the  inn,  with  a  full  determination  105 

to  rush  into  the  room  and  stab  the  occupant. 


-37- 

Strangely  enough,  the  desperate  Hindley  pulls  "from  his 

waistcoat  a  curiously  constructed  pistol,  having  a  double- 

106 

edged  spring  knife  attached  to  the  barrel."         With  this 

weapon  he  intends  to  kill  Heathcliff  and  send  him  to  eternal 

damnation.    As  Isabella  says  he,  like  Branwell,  was  "clearly 

107 

on  the  verge  of  madness," 

\i?hen  Emily  pictured  Heathcliff  as  a  thwarted  lover, 
she  drew  on  the  only  rejected  and  suffering  lover  she 
knew--Branwell.     That  Emily  used  some  of  Branwell 's  ravings 
in  her  composition  of  Heathcliff 's  speeches  is,  in  my  mind, 
a  strong  possibility.     However,  Romer  Wilson  feels  that 
this  would  be  chronologically  impossible.     This  difficulty 
is  removed  when  one  realizes  that  Romer  Wilson  is  confused 
about  the  year  in  which  Branwell  returned  to  Haworth  from 
Thorp  Green.    We  can,  however,  be  completely  certain  about 
two  dates.     One  of  these  is  Branwell »s  dismissal  from  Thorp 
Green  in  the  middle  of  l8i;5.     Shortly  after  arriving  at 
Haworth  for  a  visit  he  received  notice  that  his  services 
were  no  longer  needed  by  the  Robinsons  and  the  hysterics  of 
three  years  duration  began.     The  second  date  is  the  publication 
of  Wuthering  Heights  in  December,  l81|7. 

I  do  not  believe  that  Wuthering  Heights  was  completed 
before  the  middle  of  I8I4.5.     Anne  and  Branwell  had  already 
returned  from  Thorp  Green  when  Anne  and  Emily  went  on  their 
first  long  journey  together.    During  this  trip  the  twenty- 
five  and  twenty-seven  year  old  spinsters  pretended  to  be 


-38- 

...  Ronald  Macalgin,  Henry  Angora,  Juliet 
Angusteena,  Rosabella  Esmaldan,  Ella  and 
Julian  Egremont,  Catharine  Navarre,  and 
Cordelia  Pitaphnold,  escaping  from  the 
palaces  of  instruction  to  join  the  Royalists, 
who  are  hard  pressed  at  present  by  the  vic- 
torious Republicans.     The  Gondals  still  flourish 
bright  as  ever.lOo 

Obviously  the  Gondal  material  was  very  much  on  their  minds. 

In  her  birthday  note  of  iQkS,  Anne  states  that: 

Emily  is  engaged  in  writing  the  Emperor 
Julius's  life.     She  has  read  some  of  it,  and 
I  want  very  much  to  hear  the  rest.     She  is 
writing  some  poetry,  too.     I  wonder  what 
it  is  about?lD9 

It  is  apparent  that  Anne  was  quite  well  aware  of  Emily's 

literary  activities.     Is  it  not  reasonable  to  suppose 

that  if  Stiily  had  completed  a  novel  prior  to  the  middle 

of  1814.5  she  would  have  mentioned  it  to  Anne?    By  the 

first  half  of  181^.6  Charlotte  had  read  the  completed 

110 

Wuthering  Heights  manuscript        and  by  April  she  spoke 

111 

of  it  to  her  publishers.  The  tedious  and  disheartening 

attempts  to  see  it  published  followed. 

In  1814-3  Branwell  was  engaged  to  tutor  the  son 

of  the  Rev.  and  Mrs.  Robinson  of  Thorp  Green.     It  is  not 

true  that  Mrs.  Robinson  was  the  neglected  wife  of  an 

elderly  invalid.     She  was  the  same  age  as  her  husband  or, 

seventeen  years  older  than  Branwell.     Her  husband  did  not 

become  seriously  ill  until  I8I4.5.     According  to  Branwell, 

Mrs.  Robinson  showed  him  "a  degree  of  kindness  which  .   .  . 

ripened  into  declaration  of  more  than  ordinary  feeling 

.   .   .  all  combined  to  an  attachment  on  my  part  and  led  to 

112 

reciprocation  which  I  had  little  looked  for."  Branwell 
hoped  that  at  the  death  of  Rev.  Robinson  he  would  "be 


-39- 

113 

the  husband  of  a  lady  whom  I  loved  best  in  the  world." 

In  short,  Branwell's  expectations  were  not  fulfilled. 

Mr.  Robinson  died  and  Mrs.  Robinson,  in  turn,  began  waiting 

for  the  demise  of  the  wife  of  Sir  Edward  Dolman  Scott. 

On  Wednesday,  November  8,  l8l|.8,  Mrs.  Robinson  married 

Sir  Edward.     This  occured  six  weeks  after  Branwell's 

funeral. 

Between  Branwell's  dismissal  as  the  Robinson's 

tutor  in  181|.5  (Branwell  said  Mr.  Robinson  discovered  what 

was  going  on  between  his  wife  and  Branwell)  and  his  death 

in  18I|.8,  the  Brontfe*  family  witnessed  a  series  of  episodes 

involving  the  rejected  lover.    As  Charlotte  reported, 

Branwell  was  thinking  "of  nothing  but  stunning  or  drowning 

his  distress  of  mind"  and  during  this  time  "no  one  in  the 

Hi; 

house  could  have  rest."  For  eighteen  years  Heathcliff 

is  obssessed  with  the  idea  of  possessing  his  Cathy  once 

more  and  destroying  those  who  separated  her  from  him. 

A  few  days  before  his  death,  Heathcliff  tells 

Nelly  Dean  that: 

...  what  is  not  connected  with  her  to  me? 
and  what  does  not  recall  her?    I  cannot  look 
down  to  this  floor  but  her  features  are 
shaped  in  the  flags  I     In  every  cloud,  in  every 
tree — filling  the  air  at  night,  and  caught 
by  glimpses  in  every  object  by  day — I  am 
surrounded  with  her  image. -^-^^ 

Branwell  writing  to  Leyland  records  how  he  too  was  plagued 

with  the  remembrance  of  his  beloved: 

My  appetite  is  lost;  my  nights  are  dreadful, 
and  having  nothing  to  do  makes  me  dv;ell  on 
past  scenes--on  her  ovm  self,  her  voice, 
her  person,  her  thoughts,  till  I  could  be 
glad  if  God  would  take  me.     In  the  next  world 
I  could  not  be  worse  than  I  am  in  this.H^ 


-1^0-  ^ 

■  *ir  ■     - '  -    .  ■ 

Sir  Wemyss  Raid  points  out  a  startling  resemblance 
between  the  sentiments  expressed  by  Heathcliff  and  Branwell 
concerning  their  loved  ones'  husbands.     Branwell  wrote: 
"My  own  life  without  her  will  be  hell.     What  can  the  so- 
called  love  of  her  wretched,  sickly  husband  be  to  her 

117 

compared  with  mine."  In  Wuthering  Heights  Heathcliff 

says: 

Two  words  would  comprehend  my  future — 
death  and  hell:     existence  after  losing 
her  would  be  hell.     Yet  I  was  a  fool  to 
;  fancy  for  a  moment  that  she  valued  Edgar 

Linton's  attachment  more  than  mine.  If 
he  loved  with  all  the  powers  of  his  puny 
being,  he  couldn't  love  as  much  in  eighty 
years  as  I  could  in  a  day. 118 

At  least  two  other  incidents  show  the  remarkable 

connection  between  Heathcliff s  love  for  Cathy  and  Branwell' s 

love  for  Lydia  Robinson.     Though  Branwell  did  not  see 

Lydia  or  communicate  with  her  during  the  last  three 

years  of  his  life,  he  did  receive  reports  concerning 

her  condition  from  her  physician,  a  Dr.  Crosby.  Relating 

the  contents  of  Crosby's  last  letter  to  Leyland,  Branwell 

writes: 

He  knows  me  well,  and  pities  my  case  most 
sincerely  for  he  declares  that  though  used 
to  the  rough  ups  and  downs  of  this  weary  world, 
he  shed  tears  from  his  heart  when  he  saw  the 
state  of  that  lady  and  knew  what  I  should 
.   feel.     When  he  mentioned  my  name--she  stared 
at  him  and  fainted.     When  she  recovered  she 
in  turn  dwelt  on  her  inextinguishable  love 
for  me--her  horror  at  having  been  the  first 
to  delude  me  into  wretchedness,  and  her  agony 
at  having  been  the  cause  of  the  death  of  her 
husband,  who,  in  his  last  hours,  bitterly 
repented  of  his  treatment  of  her.     Her  sen- 
sitive mind  was  totally  wrecked.     She  wander- 
ed into  talking  of  entering  a  nunnery;  and  119 
the  Doctor  fairly  debars  me  from  hope  in  the  future. 


One  might  compare  Mrs.  Robinson's  supposed  mental  illness 

to  Cathy  Linton's  own  pre-death  mental  illness.  Gerin, 

in  her  biography  of  Branwell,  shows,  however,  that  when 

Ifrs.  Robinson  was  supposedly  a  "hopeless  ruin"  she  was  very 

carefully  taking  care  of  the  family's  finances.  The 

fancy  mourning  dresses  she  had  made  were  not  similar  to 

the  simple  garb  of  a  nun,  but  covered  with  "black  and 

^  120 
white  crepe  trimmings." 

Sleepless  nights  and  days  of  fasting  are  also 

shared  by  Heathcliff  and  Branwell.     Days  before  his  death, 

Heathcliff  spent  his  days  and  nights  roaming  the  moors;  he 

cannot  eat.     Branwell 's  own  appetite  was  decreased  due  to 

his  addiction  to  opium.     He  recounts  to  his  friend  Grundy 

how  he  dreaded 

.   .   .  the  wreck  of  his  mind  and  body,  which, 
.        God  knov;s,  during  a  short  life  have  been 
severely  tried.     Eleven  continuous  nights 
,"' :         of  sleepless  horror  reduced  me  to  almost 
blindness  .   .   .  .121 

In  l8ij.6  Branwell  wrote  Leyland  concerning  his  condition: 

You,  though  not  much  older  than  myself, 
have  known  life.     I  now  know  it  with  a 
vengeance--f or  four  nights  I  have  not 
slept — for  three  days  I  have  not  tasted 
food — and  when  I  think  of  the  state  of 
her  I  love  best  on  earth,  I  could  wish  that 
my  head  was  as  cold  and  stupid  as  the 
medallion  which  lies  in  your  studio. 122 

Although  Wuthering  Heights  was  published  almost  a 

year  before  Branwell 's  death,  the  deaths  of  Branwell  and 

Heathcliff  are  similar.     A  few  days  before  their  deaths, 

both  Branwell  and  Heathcliff  were  peaceful;  strangely 

at  peace.     Returning  from  a  walk  on  the  moors  shortly 

before  his  death,  Nelly  Dean  could  describe  Heathcliff 


as  "almost  bright  and  cheerful.     No,  almost  nothing — very 

123 

much  excited,  and  wild  and  glad!"  Charlotte,  writing 

to  Ellen  Kussey,  reports  that  Branwell's  mind  "had  under- 
gone the  peculiar  change  which  frequently  precedes  death. 

Two  days  previously  the  calm  of  better  feelings  filled  it. 

121; 

A  return  of  natural  affection  marked  his  last  moments." 
Charlotte  further  said  that  the  "propitious  change"  which 
marked 

the  last  few  days  of  poor  Branwell's  life — 
his  demeanour,  his  language,  his  sentiment — 
all  singularly  altered  and  softened  .  .  . 
could  not  be  owing  to  the  fear  of  death, 
■   ;  '       for  till  within  half  an  hour  of  his  decease 
-  he  seemed  unconscious  of  danger  .   .  .125 

The  life  of  Branwell  Bronte  ends  on  a  note  of 

pathos.     Regardless  of  the  actual  caliber  of  Branwell's 

talent,  he  believed,  at  one  time,  in  his  own  artistic 

genius.     During  the  last  three  years  of  his  misery  on 

earth  he  became  acutely  aware  of  the  impossibility  of  his 

childhood's  dreams.     The  chrysalis  in  which  he  had  spent  most 

of  his  life,  safely  shrouded  in  fantasies,  was  torn 

from  him  and  a  frantic  insanity  resulted.    Devoid  of  his 

illusions,  Branwell  was  flung  into  the  real  world,  a 

world  for  which  he,  like  Emily,  was  ill  equipped.  Only 

a  complete  transformation  would  have  enabled  him  to  carry 

on  with  life  successfully.     Money,  important  friends  and 

connections,  and  psychiatric  aid  were  all  lacking:  Branwell 

was  doomed  to  dissolution.     Like  Hindley,  Branwell  did  not 

have  to  be  destroyed  because  the  seeds  of  his  destruction 

were  contained  within  him.     The  parsonage,  once  Branwell's 


happy  home,  became  a  prison.     There  was  no  place  else  to 
go  and  nothing  left  to  do,  except  wait  for  death. 

Each  day  at  Haworth  Emily  witnessed  Branwell's 
inevitable  decline.     Both  Branwell  and  Heathcliff  were 
torn  apart  by  excruciating  mental  torment.     There  were  no 
psychiatrists  to  help  Branwell  overcome  his  disease  and 
Qnily  could  only  record  his  lovesick  ravings,  his  impos- 
sible yearnings  in  Wuthering  Heights .     For  the  first  time 
in  English  literature  the  mentally  abnormal  was  not  a 
subhuman  creature,  a  Frankenstein  monster,  but  a  sufferin 
anguished  soul  whose  cries  had  meaning, 

I  realize  that  there  is  very  little  concerning 
Emily  Bronte  which  one  can  firmly  prove,     I  have  only 
attempted  to  illustrate  an  interesting  and  important 
possibility.     Other  sources  for  Emily's  delineation 
of  Heathcliff  and  other  male  characters  in  Wuthering 
Heights  have  been  advanced  and  have  been  eventually  dis- 
credited.    The  theory  of  Branv;ell's  presence  in  Emily's 
masterpiece  has  survived.     This  is  because  the  little 
we  know  of  Emily's  personality  and  life  substantiates  it. 
Until  we  learn  more  of  Emily  or  until  a  wholly  nev/  inter- 
pretation of  her  life  is  proposed,  Branwell's  shadow 
must  loom  as  important  as  ever  in  a  turbulent  masterwork. 


FOOTNOTES 


Clement  K.  Shorter,  ed.  The  Brontes--Llf e  and  Letters 
(London,  1908),  I,  2i|.l. 

2 

Shorter,  II,  S»    .  , 


Geodfrey  P.  Bradby,  The  Brontes  and  Other  Essays 
(Oxford,  1932),  pp.  38-39. 

k 

Bradby,  p.  [|.6. 

5 

Bradby,  p.  ij.5. 


Edith  E.  Kinsley,  Pattern  for  Genius  (New  York,  1939), 
p.  23. 


May  Sinclair,  The  Three  Bronte's  (London,  1912),  pp.  32- 

Sinclair,  pp.  32-33.  ,'  ' 

9  ^  -        ■  ■  '  ■ 

Bradby,  p.  ij.1.       ■    ,  , 

10  ^,  . 

Bradby,  p.  Ij.0. 

11 

Charles  Walter  Simpson,  Emily  Bronte  (New  York, 
1929),  p.  173.   

12 

Simpson,  p.  173. 

13  . 
Simpson,  pp.  173-179. 

Simpson,  p.  177. 


-ii- 


15  .  '       •■  . 

Sinclair,  p.  3i|»  \     '  . 

16 

Sinclair,  p. 

17 

Phyllis  Bentley,  The  Bronte  Sisters  (Denver,  19i;8),  p. 

18 

Bentley,  p.  i;3.  " 

19  ^    "  ' 

Norma  Crandall,  Emily  Bronte,  A  Psychological  Portrait 
(West  Rindge,  N.  H. ,  19i?7),  P.  60. 

20  ; 
Bradby,  p.  31].. 

21 

Muriel  Spark  and  Derek  Stanford,  Emily  Bronte;     Her  Life 
and  Work  (London,  1953)*  49. 

Spark,  p.  50. 

23 

C.  W.  Hatfield,  ed.  The  Complete  Poems  of  Emily  Jane 

Bronte  (New  York,  19lj.l),  pp.  lI^^SZ 

2k  -       ■  * 

Winifred  Gerin,  Branwell  Bronte  (London,  1961),  p.  61. 

25 

P.  H.  Grundy,  Pictures  of  the  Past  (London,  1879),  p.  2ij.l. 

26    ,  ,  - 

Simpson,  p.  97.   .  ..  \ ,    '  ' 

27  '  '    '  ' 
Gerin,  p.  II4.6.  ■ 

28  '    "  ^ 
Bradby,  p.  25. 

29 

Crandall,  p.  I7. 

30 

Spark,  p.  12. 

31 

Spark,  p.  II4., . 


32 

Crandall,  p.  1?.  ,     ■  ■ 

33  ■■•  : 

Spark,  p.  93.  "■ 

Bradby,  p.  30.  } 

3^ 

Irene  Willis,  The  Brontes  (London,  1957),  p.  Ik* 

36 

Willis,  p.  7k' 

37 

Spark,  p.  12.  ■ 


Emily  Bronte,  Wutherinis;  Heights   (London,  1930),  p.  xxiii 
Hereafter  referred  to  as  Wuthering  Heights . 

39  ^ 
Wuthering  Heights ,  p.  xvi. 

14-0 

Wuthering  Heights ,  p.  xxvii. 


E.  Dimnet,  The  Bronte  Sisters,  trans.  L.  M.  Sill  (London 
1927),  p.  55. 

Fannie  E.  Ratchford,  The  Brontes'  Web  of  Childhood 
(New  York,  1936),  p.  105.   " 

Spark,  p.  h^. 

kk 

William  S.  Braithwaite,  The  Bewitched  Parsonage  (New 
York,  1950),  p.  95.  ^ 

Bradby,  p.  26. 

i^6 

Wuthering;  Heights .  p.  xvi. 
Bradby,  p.  27. 


1^8 

Crandall,  p.  95* 
Spark,  p.  27. 

50 

Kinsley,  p.  92. 
Kinsley,  p.  92. 


Angus  M.  MacKay,  The  Brontes;  fact  and  fiction  (London, 
1897),  p.  27.  —  

53 

Crandall,  p.  22.  s  . 

$k 

Gerin,  p.  112. 

55 

Crandall,  p.  128. 

56  •  ■     ^  ; 

Bradby,  p.  i;l. 

57 

Gerin,  p.  2^.$. 

58  ;    ,  . 
Bradby,  p.  i;l. 

59  .-• 
Crandall,  p.  II5, 

60 

Alice  Law,  Patrick  Branwell  Bronte  (London,  1923),  r>p. 
8O-8I. 

61 

Laura  L.  Hinkley,  The  Brontes.  Charlotte  and  Qnily 
(New  York,  19i;6 ) ,  p.  I33T  ^ 

62 

Hinkley,  p.  133. 

63 

A.  B.  Hopkins,  The  Father  of  the  Brontes  (Baltimore,  1958), 


-V- 


61,  -  :   '  ■ 

Wutherin;^  Heights ,  p.  xxiv. 
Law,  p.  129. 

66 

Spark,  pp.  67-68. 

67 

Spark,  p.  73. 

68 

Spark,  p.  73. 

69 

T.  Wemyss  Reid,  Charlotte  Bronte ;     A  Monograph  (New 
York,  1677),  pp.  57-^8.  ~ 

70 

Kinsley,  p.  I3. 

71  .  ^ 

Hinkley,  pp.  152-153. 

72 

Hinkley,  p.  326. 

73 

Wuthering  Heights ,  ch.  k,  p. 

71, 

Wuthering  Heights,  ch.  1;,  p.  ij.5. 

75         ■  ^  ■  ' 

Wuthering  Heights,  ch.  1;,  pp.  14-5-^6. 

76 

Kinsley,  p.  30.  ■ 

78  '  /  ; 
Gerin,  p.  282. 

79  •  ' 

Bertram  White,  The  Miracle  of  Haworth  (New  York,  1939). 
pp.  257-258.  

80 

G.  Elsie  Harrison,  The  Clue  to  the  Brontes  (London. 
191,8),  p.  89.   

81 

Willis,  p.  70. 


-vi- 


82 

Ratchford,  p.  xiv. 

83 

MacKay,  pp.  19-20. 
Bentley,  pp.  214.-25. 

85 

Bentley,  pp.  21^-2$. 

86 

Wutherinp;  Heights,  ch.  2,  p.  llj., 

87  •    ■  ■ 
Gerin,  p.  I6I4.. 

» 

88  ■         i    •   '  •' 
Gerin,  p.  178.  -  - 

89  ^      ■        ■■"^^    ■  i^/ 
Crandall,  p.  89. 

90 

Law,  p.  50. 

4  , 

91  •  -    ■    ■  .  "     ■   •  • 

Gerin,  p.  22ij.. 

92 

Sinclair,  p.  14.1. 

93 

WutherinR  Heights,  ch.  3I,  pp.  37i4.-375 

9k 

Gerin,  p.  208. 

95 

Hinkley,  p.  I30. 

96 

I  Gerin,  p.  209. 

97  .      ,  . 

Wuthering  Heights,  ch.  3,  p.  33. 

98 

Gerin,  p.  I85.    .  , 

99  ■  '  ! 

Bradby,  p.  14.8, 


-vii- 


100 

Wuthering  Heights,  ch.  3»  P«  23. 

101  . 
Kinsley,  p.  197. 

102 

Gerin,  p.  273. 

103 

Wuther ing  Heights,  ch.  13,  p.  170, 
Gerin,  p.  292. 

105 

Gerin,  p.  292. 

106 

Wuther ing  Heights,  ch.  13,  pp.  172-173. 

107 

Wuthering  Heights ,  ch.  13,  p.  17i;. 

108 

Sinclair,  p.  193. 

109 

Shorter,  I,  306.  .  V'  ^ 

110  ■  ■  '       ,     '  • 
Spark,  p.  77. 

111  '    '  ' 

Romer  ,jWilson,  The  Life  and  Private  History  of  Emily 
Jane  Bronte  (New  York,  1925),  p,~^3F: 

112 

Gerin,  p.  221;. 
Gerin,  p.  2i;l. 

iii^  ^;  ..^v 

Gerin,  p.  2l;0. 

115 

Wuthering  Heights ,  ch.  33,  p.  399. 

116 

Gerin,  p.  267.  • 


-viii- 


117 

Law,  pp.  175-176. 

118 

Law,  p.  176. 

119 

Gerin,  p.  267. 

120 

Gerin,  p.  268. 

121 

Gerin,  p.  267. 

122 

Gerin,  p.  263. 

123 

V/utherin!3;  Heights,  ch.  3I+,  p.  I4.O3. 

124 

Gerin,  p.  296.     .    •  ■ 

125  ■ 

Gerin,  p.  297. 


.» 
«  « 


LIST  OF  WORKS  CONSULTED 


Bentley,  Phyllis.     The  Bronte  Sisters.     Denver,  191^-8. 

Bradby,  Geodfrey  P.     The  Bronte's  and  Other  Essays.  Oxford, 
1932. 

Braithwaite,  William  S.     The  Bewitched  Parsonage .  New 
York,  1950.  .    ,  . 

Bronte,  Emily.    Wuthering  Heights .     London,  1930. 

 .     Gondal ' s  Queen,  a  novel  in  verse,  ed. 

Fannie  E.  Ratchford.     Austin,  19^. 

 .     The  Complete  Poems  of  Emily  Jane  Bronte, 

ed.  C.  W.  Hatfield.     New  York,  191^-1. 

Crandall,  Norma.     Emily  Bronte,  A  Psychological  Portrait. 
West  Rindge,  N.  H. ,  1957. 

Cricht on -Browne,  Sir  J.     "Patrick  Branv/ell  Bronte,  An 
Extenuation,"    Fortnightly  Review,  IOI4.  (July 
1918),  71^-82.  ~ 

Dimnet,  E.     The  Bronte  Sisters,  trans.  L.  M.  Sill. 
London,  1927. 

)i 

du  Maurier,  Daphne,     The  Infernal  World  of  Branwell  Bronte. 
London,  1961. 

Gerin,  Winifred.     Branwell  Br ont^ .     London,  I96I, 

Grundy,  P.  H.     Pictures  of  the  Past.     London,  1879. 

Harrison,  G.  Elsie.     The  Clue  to  the  Brontes .     London,  19i).8, 


Hinkley,  Laura  L.     The  Brontes ,  Charlotte  and  Emily. 
New  York,  19^5. 

Hopkins.  A.  B.     The  Father  of  the  Brontes.     Baltimore,  1958. 


Kinsley,  Edith  E.     Pattern  for  Genius.     New  York,  1939. 


Law,  Alice.     Patrick  BranvTell  Bronte.     London,  1923. 

Leyland,  F.  A.     The  Bronte  Family,  with  Special  Reference 
to  Patrick  Branv/ell  Bronte.     London,  158F^ 

MacKay,  Angus  M.     The  Brontes ;  fact  and  fiction.  London, 
1897. 


Moore,  Virginia.     The  Life  and  Ea^er  Death  of  Emily  Bront^'. 
New  York,  1936.  ] 

Ratchford,  Fannie  E.     The  Bronte's '  Web  of  Childhood. 
New  York,  19^1,  . 

Reid,  T.  Wexnyss.     Charlotte  Bronte;     A  Monograph.  New 
York,  1877. 

Robinson,  A.  Mary  Pj^     (Madame  Duclaux. )     The  Life  of 
Emily  Bronte.     Boston,  I883. 

Shorter,  Clement  K. ,  ed.     The  Brontes — Life  and  Letters. 
2  vols.     London,  1908. 

Simpson,  Charles  Walter.     Brnily  Bronte.     New  York,  1929. 

Sinclair,  May.     The  Three  Brontes .     London,  1912. 

Spark,  Muriel  and  Derek  Stanford.     Bnily  Bronte;  Her 
Life  and  Work.     London,  195T^ 

Sugden,  K.  A.  R.  A  Short  History  of  the  Brontes .  London, 

i9i+o.  ; 

Visick,  Mary.     The  Genesis  of  Wuthering  Heights.  Hong 
Kong,  19Fff.    ^  

White,  Bertram.     The  Miracle  of  Haworth.     New  York,  1939. 

Willis,  Irene.     The  Brontes.     London,  1957. 

Wilson,  Romer.     The  Life  and  Private  History  of  Emily 
Jane  Brontg.     New  York,  1928. 

Wise,  T.  J.  and  J.  A.  Symington,  ed.     The  Brontes,  Their 
Lives,  Friendships  and  Correspondence.  Oxford, 
1932. 


THE  PRESENCE  OP  PATRICK  BRANWELL  BRONTE  IN  WUTHERING  HEIGHTS 


by 


CAROLYN  MARIE  MORGAN 
B.  S.,  Spring  Hill  College,  1962 


AN  ABSTRACT  OP  A  MASTER'S  REPORT 
submitted  in  partial  fulfillment  of  the 
requirements  for  the  degree 
MASTER  OP  ARTS 
Department  of  English 


KANSAS  STATE  UNIVERSITY 
Manhattan,  Kansas 

1966 


I  have  attempted  in  this  paper  to  show  to  what 
extent  Branwell  Bronte  is  present  in  his  sister  Emily's 
sole  novel,  Wutherins  Heights.     I  believe  it  is  advisable, 
at  least  by  way  of  introduction,  to  establish  what  Branwell 
and  Einily's  relationship  was  like.     The  difficulty  in 
establishing  this  relationship  results  from  the  fact  that 
Snily  did  not,  unlike  Charlotte  and  Branwell,  make  devoted 
friends  and  keep  up  a  wide  correspondence.     The  little  we 
know  about  Snily  Bronte  is  drawn  from  the  impressions  of 
others,  not  revelations  she  made  personally.  Therefore, 
any  study  of  Emily  Bronte  necessitates  delving  into  the 
writings  of  her  relations  and  their  friends.     Such  evidence 
is  not  always  trustworthy. 

The  very  derth  of  original  material  on  Snily 
has  driven  many  to  construct  the  Branwell-Emily  relationship 
on  elaborate  legends,  some  of  which  were  encouraged  by 
A.  Mary  P.  Robinson's  biography  of  Enily.     Other  critics 
and  biographers  have  tried  to  analyze  Qnily's  poems  sub- 
jectively, which  is  an  unreliable  method  because  of  the 
difficulty  in  correlating  Emily's  private  life  during  a 
certain  period  of  time  with  the  emotions  expressed  in  a 
poem  written  during  the  same  time  period.     It  is  also 
almost  impossible  to  discern  which  poems  are  strictly  personal 
and  which  poems  are  involved  with  Gondal  themes. 

It  is  not  thought  that  the  egocentric  Branwell  had 
an  early  affinity  with  the  shy  Qnily.     However,  from 
1835  to  1838  Emily  and  Branwell  were  thrown  together  at 
Haworth  (Charlotte  and  Anne  were  mainly  absent  at  this  time). 


-2- 

A  closer  personal  relationship  is  believed  to  have  developed 
and  there  is  some  evidence  of  literary  consultations  be- 
tween brother  and  sister.     However,  there  is  no  direct 
evidence  of  the  tender  relationship  of  which  Miss  Robinson 
writes.     Similar  attitudes  on  religion  and  a  common  ex- 
perience of  being  failures  in  the  eyes  of  the  world  might 
have  brought  them  together,  but,  again,  there  is  no  sub- 
stantial evidence  of  this. 

There  are  three  main  critical  positions  on  the 
question  of  whether  or  not  Branwell  Bronte's  shadow  is 
found  in  Wuthering  Heights .     At  one  extreme,  are  the 
critics  who  dismiss  the  importance  of  Branwell  in  Enily's 
construction  of  male  characters  either  because  she  was 
above  "using"  her  beloved  brother  or  because  Branwell  was 
of  such  an  inferior  nature  that  he  simply  was  not  interesting. 
Critics  in  the  late  nineteenth  century  believed,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  the  Bronte  sisters  had  written  their  then  shocking 
novels  in  order  to  obtain  a  catharsis.     The  middle  position 
holds  that  Emily,  living  a  secluded  life,  would  have  had 
to  draw  on  the  men  that  she  knew  intimately:     her  father  and 
her  brother.     There  are  several  similarities  between  the 
behavior  and  speech  of  Heathcliff,  Hindley,  and  Lockwood 
and  that  of  Branwell  which  suggest  that  Bnily  did  rely  on 
her  knowledge  of  Branwell  to  construct  the  men  in  her  novel. 

Other  sources  for  Enily's  delineation  of  Heathcliff 
and  other  male  characters  in  Wutherinp;  Heipihts  have  been 
advanced  and  have  been  eventually  discredited.    The  theory 


of  Branwell's  presence  in  Bnily's  masterpiece  has  survived. 
This  is  because  the  little  we  know  of  Emily's  personality 
and  life  substantiates  it.     Until  we  learn  more  of  Emily 
or  until  a  wholly  new  interpretation  of  her  life  is  pro- 
posed, Branwell's  shadow  must  loom  as  important  as  ever 
in  a  turbulent  masterwork.